CC4 Foot controller on piano roll view

I write using a lot of strings, so I use a volume pedal on CC4 to blend them in while I am playing.  For the most everything works fine, except one thing that's turned out to be disastrous at times...  After I play the part, occasionally I will go back into piano roll view and draw in the increase/decrease in volume differently (i.e., make a smoother swell or fade).  Most of the time this works great, but occasionally when I draw in the part, it creates big blocky steps replacing the smooth swell/fade that I had... I undo and try again and again but no dice, I have to play the part over.  Thankfully most of the time that doesn't happen, I think it knows when I have a perfect performance because it ALWAYS does it on that one...
 
Another weird thing that it does in piano roll view is occasionally it wont show the virtual keyboard along the left hand side of the screen.  Highly annoying I have to close piano roll view and reopen it which normally fixes the problem...  any ideas on either of these issues? 
R