New Member

Change default canvas stacking in auto layout

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 8, 2023
70 replies
7012 views

I am using auto layout a lot in my projects and think it is awesome. However, there is one small issue that annoys me a lot. The default setting for canvas stacking is always “Last on top”, which is usually not what I want. For instance when switching state of a dropdown in a layout, the dropdown list will appear below the content that is underneath it (at least in my case where the list is using absolute position). With lots of nested auto layouts, things quickly become a mess if you forgot to change this when you created the auto layout. I would suggest either of these solutions:

Change default to “First on top”.
Make the default setting optional
Remember the last used setting (like the animation properties work)

Share an idea

Show previous replies

Jon_Landis

New Member

This drives me insane too! Should be such an easy thing for Figma to add as a setting default to adjust! Please “fix” this Figma, as I see its current state as an oversight and a bug rather than a thought-through feature decision.

conner_monarch

New Member

+1 to this please!!! First on top as default, or at least give me the option to set it.

Ajaya_Bajracharya

New Participant

Right now, Figma automatically stacks new layers in Auto Layout with the “Last on top” in the Canvas stacking. While you can manually change this for each frame, there’s no global setting to make "First on Top" the default.

Having to adjust this every single time slows down the design process. It would be much more efficient if Figma allowed users to set a global preference for stacking order—just like how we can customize nudge values.

Honestly, "First on Top" feels like it should be the default, with an option to switch if needed. This small change would save a lot of time and make Auto Layout much smoother to work with.

Lily Song

New Member

+1 too, been having this problem for a long time.
I have to change the canvas stacking 1by1 in each prototype :(
please give me the option to set it

Craig P.

New Member

Totally agree with all the posters here. I honestly can’t think of a time when I wanted last on top to be the setting. So I finally got tired of changing it every time and was looking for how to set the default and low and behold I see that I’m not alone and am dumbfounded that there is no way to set the default for this! Figma, when are you going to add this simple little setting change? And why no response to all the feedback?

seehadley

New Member

I liked the original, is that the same as voting up?

I have to change from last on top to first on top in multiple places in every prototype I make. It’s strange that Figma doesn’t have a setting to adjust this default.