select attribute

What has always worked for me (when the various suggestions above don't) is to Store the dataset you want to select attributes from in your local Repository using the "Store" operator - and then immediately use the "Retrieve" operator to bring the data back into your process.  Be sure to connect the "Retrieve" operator to the "Select Attributes" operator.  Insert a breakpoint after the "Retrieve" operator and when the breakpoint kicks in and your process halts, click on the "Select Attributes" operator and then click on the "Validate Process" and "Validate Automatically"  options on the Process Menu.  You can then use the "Select Attributes" operator to select the attributes you want from the dataset that was just stored and retrieved.  Then save your process - and you can can then resume the running of your process.  It seems that storing to and then retrieving data from the repository forces a metadata refresh.  I have a "Temporary Storage" folder in my local repository, and whenever I need to store and retrieve a dataset, I set the name of the object to be stored to "Temp Storage".  Hope this helps, and best wishes, Michael Martin