cant place movie clip

[FoxxyThing]

so this is the function I have as of now 

function placeGem(x:int, y:int) {
	var newGemAmount:int = gems+1;
	var gemOBJ:RainbowGem = new RainbowGem();
	gemOBJ.x = x;
	gemOBJ.y = y;
	gemOBJ.name = "gem"+newGemAmount;
	gemOBJ.visible = true;
	background.addChild(gemOBJ);
	//gems++;
	trace("+----------------------------+");
	trace("| Gems name: "+ gemOBJ.name);
	trace("| Gems Y: "+ gemOBJ.y);
	trace("| Gem X: "+gemOBJ.x);
	trace("| Gems parent: "+gemOBJ.parent.name);
	trace("+----------------------------+");
	trace("\n");
}

and I get the right output* 

+----------------------------+
| Gems name: gem3
| Gems Y: 300
| Gem X: 440
| Gems parent: background
+----------------------------+

but the object is not being placed. "background" is a movie clip that is where I want "gemOBJ" to be in.

any idea why I don't see it being placed?

[kglad]

background not being visible would do it as would several other things.

to see if it's a parent problem, try:

//background.addChild(gemOBJ);
stage.addChild(gemObj)

[FoxxyThing]

oddly that worked but i need it on the background movie clip

[kglad]

that's just for debugging and confirms you have a background problem.  eg, background is not on stage, or it's not visible or it's x,y is such that gemObj is off-stage etc.

it's easy to test for all these possibilities, using the trace statement.  if you need help, let me know.

[FoxxyThing]

sadly i do, i would not know hot to debug for this

[kglad]

what's the output panel show with:

var propA:Array=["stage","visible","alpha","x","y"];

for(var i:int=0;i<propA.length;i++){
trace(propA[i], background[propA[i]]);
}

[FoxxyThing]

stage [object Stage]
visible true
alpha 1
x 329.8
y 235.65

[kglad]

what's the stage size?  (eg, if it's 550x400, your gem is probably off-stage).

[FoxxyThing]

default AS3 size. 350x400

[FoxxyThing]

550 x 400*

[kglad]

use x,y = 0,0 for your gem to see the problem.

[FoxxyThing]

place gem on background or stage? also may I ask how that shows the problem?

[FoxxyThing]

if on background 

+----------------------------+
| Gems name: gem3
| Gems Y: 0
| Gem X: 0
| Gems parent: background
+----------------------------+

and i see the gem, x&y must be screwed up I'm guessing?

[kglad · Accepted solution]

background is probably messed up and should be at 0,0. 

if doing that moves background above and to the left of the stage (or, at least, where you want it), edit the background movieclip so it's reg point is at 0,0.

[kglad]

replace your 

 placeGem(300, 440);

with

 placeGem(0,0)

and it shows the problem because you probably think that gem is going to be at the top left of your stage instead of where it will actually appear (below and to the right of stage center).