Strange Mix/Layer Behaviour

I have the following set up

Mac Pro
THG to 3 separate projectors pointing at a theatre stage.

Projectors 1 & 2 are shooting at roughly 45 deg from either side of the auditorium. Projector 3 (centre projector) is straight on to the stage.

The task is to project onto the legs and borders as well as 3 backdrops that come in at different depths on stage.

Unfortunately the centre projector is too close to cover the full drops so the 2 side projectors are doing most of the work. As a result I am using 14 mixes to do keystone line ups on the drops, the legs and borders and the edges of the proscenium. In some cases I have mixes that sit on top of others to facilitate line ups onto certain set elements.

Mix Layer switching via DMX is being used to set up layers for each drop as required.

All up there are 22 layers. 12 for doing the stage and drops and 10 for doing images on the proscenium.

All of this has been working really well.

Now for the strangeness.

I have the other output of the Mac acting as a control monitor. I have been previewing layers and using the Mix Options window to adjust keystoning and blending.

The first issue is the most obvious. If I adjust Mix 1 and in a particular scene it takes priority and I lose any mix that was in front of it to the back. The work around has been to go to the Mix that has disappeared in mix options and just switch it off and back on again to re assert itself to the front.

It would be great to know if there is a way to force the order so that Mix 1 is always at the bottom and the mixes overlay in order, much the same as layers work.

The second issue is far more peculiar. If I start Catalyst up and layers aren't selected in the layer panel on my control screen then they won't appear anywhere until I click on the layer button at the side of the layers panel. It as if these switches, which normally are for monitoring only, are controlling visibility of the layers on Output 2.

If I switch the HUD on and off it seems to make no difference. If I restart the Software it doesn't make any difference. I still have to start up the HUD and switch all the layer buttons on.

Is there something I am missing?

Cheers

Toby Harding