splittercontrol

VB.NET 2005

I'm using a splitter control and not getting the result I would expect.

The splitter is set for horizontal splitting with a bottom panel of fixed
size.

I set the SplitterDistance, to set the height of the top panel, at design
time to 250. When I open the program, the top panel has been reset to 316.
The only way I can change this is in the OnLoad event and set it again to
250.

How do I get this to set correctly from my design-time setting?

Also I want to set a maximum size for the top panel. Any idea how to do
this?

Thanks,

Rick