I read:

I have two abstractions:

[avat 0]

[avat 1]

which load 'avat.pd' of course, with args 0 and 1 respectively - any suggestions as to how I'd get these to open at startup?

for different locations on screen you might want to save 2 copies of your abstraction (like avat_0.pd and avat_1.pd) for visibility see the attached patches

x@combat:~$ wc -c visible.tar.gz 321 visible.tar.gz

so I thought it was ok to attach it ...

HTH,

x