flash cs

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I got asked the other day why don’t we use scenes?

Before getting into using scenes read below, this is a hotly contested area but is suggested best practice by adobe to steer away from scenes. Read below for adobes official thoughts and my own on scenes in flash…

Using Scenes
Using scenes is similar to using several SWF files together to create a larger presentation. Each scene has a timeline. When the playhead reaches the final frame of a scene, the playhead progresses to the next scene. When you publish a SWF file, the timeline of each scene combines into a single timeline in the SWF file. After the SWF file compiles, it behaves as if you created the FLA file using one scene. Because of this behavior, avoid using scenes for the following reasons:

• Scenes can make documents confusing to edit, particularly in multiauthor environments. Anyone using the FLA document might have to search several scenes within a FLA file to locate code and assets. Consider loading content or using movie clips instead.

• Scenes often result in large SWF files. Using scenes encourages you to place more content in a single FLA file and hence, larger documents to work with and larger SWF files.

• Scenes force users to progressively download the entire SWF file, even if they do not plan or want to watch all of it. Your user progressively downloads the entire file, instead of loading the assets they actually want to see or use. If you avoid scenes, the user can control what content they download as they progress through your SWF file. This means that the user has more control over how much content they download, which is better for bandwidth management. One drawback is the requirement for managing a greater number of FLA documents.

• Scenes combined with ActionScript might produce unexpected results. Because each scene timeline is compressed onto a single timeline, you might encounter errors involving your ActionScript and scenes, which typically requires extra, complicated debugging.

There are some situations where few of these disadvantages apply, such as when you create lengthy animations. If you create lengthy animations, you might find it adventageous to use scenes. If disadvantages apply to your document, consider using multiple FLA files, movie clips, or screens to build an animation instead of using scenes. For more information on using screens, see Working with Screens in Flash Help or the Flash 8 LiveDocs (Using Flash > Working with Screens).

Basically I think scenes are the devils spawn

Instead I would suggest that you break your file into manageable flash files (chucks) e.g make separate swf files. This will make it easier to create, edit, code and in end manage.

Hope this helps clear some things up