TSW hell

Struggling with this program . . . still. I asked about missing layers on the forum at TSR but the only suggestion was that I save the base project file in case it screws up. Well, duh, yes, I should have been doing that too, but it ignores the question all together.
I asked about missing layers on the forum at TSR but the only suggestion was that I save the base project file in case it screws up. Well, duh, yes, I should have been doing that too, but it ignores the question all together. What the hell is happening? I have three painting files (it seems to do this with certain files) and as I learn more about the program and how to tinker with things that tutorials do not tend to cover (say multiple paintings in one file) the multiplier and specular will disappear, or the mask and overlay - seriously, any number of combinations, including all four. I have had the patterns disappear, too. Yesterday the shadow file disappeared in one file causing a huge black square to show up behind the painting. I will open the file, replace the dds file it is missing and close it only to find the save did not take. It seems if I keep the dds file away from my recycle bin (they are damned hard to keep track of - the names are damned near binary) I have a better chance of having the saved file work better? Is it not already saved in the file? Is it referencing the outside dds file?

Worse, there are times I will open the file and it works just fine - all the textures are there. Then I will open it again five minutes later and poof - gone are the files that were just there . . . again.

Don't think for a moment that I have a key in the back of my computer that I need to crank to get it to go. It's a powerful beastie, so this tiny program should be a breeze to run. That said though, launching Sims 3 to get a gander at if this or that worked can be very draining - to me, not the computer. I am also no stranger to the reboot, so if you are thinking that - stop it already - this is not a case of user error (at least not on that level).

Sure, I am willing to admit that I might be doing something wrong, but damned if I will know - there are no tutorials for that.