Advanced Lightning Bug?

Question

Hi guys,
Anyone else having this trouble with the Advanced Lightning effect?
I understand the Direction property is contextual based on the Lightning type selected, so its name could be 'Direction' or 'Outer Radius' depending on which you select.
However, when you load a scene, the property is temporarily named 'Contextual Property' and therefore breaks any expressions linked to it.
I couldn't find anything on the forums so I've submitted this as a possible bug, and I thought I'd start a discussion  in case anyone else encounters this problem.
Here's my bug report...
******BUG******
Error generated when loading a scene with a position expression linked to the Advanced Lightning Direction property.
Error is as follows:
AE Warning: Class 'Effect' has no property or method named 'Direction'
Expression disabled
Steps to reproduce bug:
1. New Project
2. Add Advanced Lightning to a new solid - create a few keyframes for Direction property
3. Add a Null
4. Use pickwhip to generate expression for the Null's position to follow the Lightning's Direction property.
5. Check that Null follows as it should
6. Save project
7. Reload generates the above error
Results:
You get a 'no property or method' error when loading because the Direction is named 'Contextual Property' on load.
Workaround is to refresh the Lightning's list of properties, until eventually the Direction name shows up, then re-enable your expression(s).
Expected results:
Null position values follows the Direction property values
******BUG******
BTW, I'm running AfterEffects v11.0.2.12 on Win 7 Pro 64bit 16gb Ram, Intel i7 3770k

Answer 1

It's actually a limitation in very much all contextual properties. Simply use the property index instead of the name:
effect("XYZ")(1)
Hold down Alt while pickwhipping the effects control to get the index instead of the property name.
Mylenium