[mono-android] Multi-screen applications with alternating layouts

[Ronny Dahl]

Fellow developers,

I have used both MonoDroid and Mono for Android about a year with emphasis on MonoTouch. Lately I have been tasked to develop an Android application as well. Seeing that Android comes in many flavors size-wise I have read some of Xamarins documentation on the subject of Multiscreen applications, but alas, I cannot get it to work.

My issues are as follows:
- When I include alternating layouts such as /Resources/layout-sw720dp/Main.axml the designer opens and I am not able to switch back to the original layout (/Resources/layout/Main.axml) any more (in the designer that is - can still see the XML).
- When I do changes to the alternate layout, it happens more often than not that the original layout is updated as well. I have also experiences several times that if I have alternating layouts, the entire directory is removed when I try to do changes to the respective layout.
- Side note: I noticed earlier that the device list on the designer toolbar had many entries in it. Now it is completely empty.

My development environment:
- Both MonoDevelop and Visual Studio 2010/2012 on three different computers (with valid licenses). I reinstalled one of my laptops an hour ago, created a new Android application with one of the default templates and the above-mentioned issues still apply. My computers are quite new so neither performance/drivers should be an issue.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Regards,
Ronny Dahl