flash (macromedia): mitchFlash;
Not sure what the question is, but fwiw you can turn off object drawing
mode via the tools panel. The feature "auto-groups" graphics, but much of
the time I prefer flash's efficient "auto-join/punch" and work with it
turned off...
-Tom Unger

In older versions of Flash, shapes were very volatile. If two shapes on the
same layer overlapped each other, they would actually cut chunks out of each
other. Flash 8, on the other hand, now has object drawing mode, which allows
you to create a shape as a self-contained object that won't interfere with
other objects.:confused;