I just installed the latest Studio. It didn't fix a problem I had with an earlier version of 7.0. It always says "identifier unknown". Gdb or no gdb, it says the same thing. I tried various optimization things, including "Optimize debugging experience".
In the following pictures, signals is a class member. my_signals is a local, on the stack as you can see. I don't think I had this problem with Studio 6.2.
EDIT: Most of my functions could be inlined. Could that be the problem?
Steve, I had problems like this with 'normal' c code under earlier versions of studio too, in my case the problem was that the variables were optimized out, and all the things that happened just happened inside the R0 - R31 registers.
You could have a look in the compiled code to see were the writing is actually done too. if it is a register the variable is optimized away, else it indeed is a studio bug. Note that with the new studio also comes a new compiler, package so might be that they turned up the optimization a bit further. I think it was the lss file you had to take a look in. and you can search for the string "combined_signals My_signals = signals" to save some scrolling time.
I've had this problem for 12 years starting with Studio 4. I think it was fixed in Studio 6.2. I'll give that a try. When I ran this latest 7.0 it forced me to reluctantly update the firmware in my Atmel ICE. I hope it will downgrade the firmware if Studio 6.2 requires it.
The .lss showed only registers in that function.
I looked again at the compiler optimization and saw a new entry called Debugging. I changed it to the maximum. Now the debugger shows the stack object but not the class member. This may be enough for now. I'll give it a try.
clawson 
Can you watch "this"? If you can does that lead to this->signals? Is that visible?
BTW I notice the implementation here is just:
void ProcessEvents() {rather than the expected:
void className::ProcessEvents() {So presumably you are using "using" ? Wonder if that is somehow confusing it?
EDIT: Most of my functions could be inlined. Could that be the problem?
,cpp files are for losers. 
I've got hundreds of functions and almost all are in the class definition.
I could mention the this pointer in the class. I think I can reference class member objects with this->membername.
I'll figure out my weird problem one way or the other. Now that I got the debugger to see stack objects, that may be enough.
I could do what I've done in the past and put values into general purpose registers. The debugger can see them there.
I've got AS 6.2 around and I have an old JTAGICE mkII that's probably set up for AS 6.2.
You might experiment with some of the debugging options more specific than just "-g" https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/g...
I vaguely recall some instance on some CPU/debugger combo where "-gdwarf-2" or something similar helped improve the debugging experience.
I'll take a look at it.
Just seeing the stack objects allowed me to figure out the explanation of the weird behavior of my software.