Instances not available on all frames

Question

Hi all
If I have a fla file with movieclip symbols A, B and C
On frame 1 on the main timeline, I use an instance of A named
"a" and an instance of B named "b". on frame 2 I use an instance of
B named "b" and an instance of C named "c".
Now I want to attach a new movieclip symbol "red_dot" as a
child of the instances "a", "b" and "c". When this is done a red
dot should be displayed on "a", "b" and "c".
When the current frame is 1, I only have access to "a" and
"b", and on frame 2 I only have access to "b" and "c".
If I attach the red dot to "a" and "b" on frame 1 and then
gotoAndPlay(2), then the red dot is still shown on "b", but not on
"c" because it could not be accessed on frame 1, which was the
current frame when I attached the red dot.
So my question is, how can I access instances on other
frames, if they are not shown on the current frame. Do the
instances exist at all, if they are not shown on the current frame
When are the instances of a given frame created and made
accessble to ActionScript ?
Hopes this makes sense...
Best regards Stig Nielsson

Answer 1

stigbn, not exactly sure what answer you are looking for
but...
1.) Instances are only copies of the symbol in the library.
If you want a red dot on EVERY instance of something, open it in
the library and add it there. Then every time you place an instance
of that on stage... either by AS or in the authoring environment,
it will be there.
2.) If you only want the red dot on certain instances, and
not on others, either employ layers or keyframes to separate the
two instances. If you have an instance of B on the first frame in a
keyframe and in frame two, you have a new keyframe with an instance
of B, those are two separate instances. If you wish to keep the
same instance of B across both frames, ditch the keyframe.
3.) In order for AS to control any instance, the instance
need to be present at that point on the stage... OR you could set
the linkage in the library and dynamically call an instance to the
stage. So if you go the stage instance route and would like to
control an instance that's sits in a keyframe at frame 2, then the
AS will have to either sit on that same frame or you could put all
instances on frame 1 and control their visibility so that they are
only visible on the frames you want them to be.
I hope I understood your question. Good luck!