Rendering problems in Android Studio v 1.1 / 1.2

UPDATE: Apparently they have fixed this bug in the final Android Studio 1.3 release (according to users reporting this issue solved in the issue tracker: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37043358).

This is a known bug since Android Studio build 1.1, which still exists in AS versions 1.2 and 1.3 beta. Switching the preview's API level from 22 to 21 fixes the for most people. While waiting for a fix you could try it as well.

Android Studio Layout Preview - Switch API to 21

UPDATE: This is already reported as a known issue of Android Studio (http://tools.android.com/knownissues#TOC-Can-t-Render-Layouts-in-Android-Studio-1.2)

I don't know if this will help or not, but I was creating a test project (direct from the wizard, no custom code) and getting this error. Trying to modify the project structure and find the missing class didn't help.

The build failed with the following error:

***rendering problems

The following classes could not be found android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActionBarOverlayLayout***

Obviously it's not the final solution, but changing the Theme in design view from the base "project theme" to anything else allows it to build.

Possible solutions that worked for me:

1 -> Add the word Base. to the beginning of the theme name so that it reads "Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"

i.e., Change AppTheme parent in res/values/styles.xml to resolve this problem. Replace

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>

with

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>

2- > Downgrade API level from 22 to 21 in preview pane as suggested by @david.schreiber

I changed the AppTheme above the graphical preview to Base.Theme.AppCompat and it disappeared for me. It worked on both 19 and 22 API :) ! Good Luck to all of you!

see what i did
^{click for larger image}