when i keyframe a frame in xsi for animation the keyframe it self doesnt appear. why is that? is there a way to fix it?

what chain element are you trying to apply the key frame to, a bone or an effector?

Key frames do not show up on effectors, just tried it, but they do show up on bones.

If you are trying to do IK animations try making a control object, I like using implicit objects like a cube (0.25 as the size works nice) you then do a match translation to the effector you want to control. Then select the effector and constrain it to the implicit object you just made.
Move the object to control the effector and key frames will show up.

It wasn't a effector but it was a bone. after envoloping the bone to the cube i was goign to animated i keyframed frames 0 1 and 40 and nothign happened. well the keyframe button was red but there was no keyframe itself on the frame(i mean like the red thing on the frame itself)

did you animate the bone to a cube or the other way around? which object did you select when you made the key?

the bone which was a null and had the selected all three rotation buttons

which color does/did the keyframebutton have when you activated the rotationmode and pressed it?

the keyframe button itself was red meaning it did the keyframe but on the frame itself like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,... it didnt have the red thing on that. did same thign for translation

post a picture of your skeleton (or nulls if that is what you are using) with one of them highlighted so we can get a better idea of what you are attempting to do.

ok well it was better explained in a video so i made one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7yD2bpLrZo

as you can see the keyframe on the frame doesnt show up but the button turns red which means it was keyframed. it isnt that big of an issue but it is easier if it shows up.

Just for fun right click on the timeline then Show Keys and see what option is selected, should be Keyable Parameters

Thanks fragme worked great (still not sure how that was changed)