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Israr_Choudhry
February 26, 2021

First on top layer order in Auto-Layout

  • February 26, 2021
  • 80 replies
  • 22893 views

Currently auto layout arranges layers from bottom up, i.e. the lower most layer in the layers list appears on top of every other layer on the workspace.

This creates two problems

1. Confusion
There’s a clear confusion of the order of layers shown in the layers menu and the representation in the workspace. This requires a bit of getting used to

2. Effects like drop shadow don’t work like they are expected to
Applying a drop shadow to layer 1 does not cast the shadow on layer 2

And applying a drop shadow to layer 2 casts a shadow over the top layer 1

The Order in the layer menu should be reversed.
Does anybody else see merit in this?

Update:
The same logic applies to horizontal auto-layouts.
The right most element is on top whereas the left most element should be on top majorly because we scan left to right hence the element on the lleft most extremity is to be scanned first.

for example:
Say we require a stack of layers to be shown which shuffles on drag

It would make more sense to bring layer1 above layer2 above layer3

80 replies

Zlatko
Active Member
December 8, 2021

Haha, gaming the system. Nevertheless, a cool workaround. 🙂

Maker of kinverse.app
Evgeny_Eryomin
December 8, 2021

Amazing, thanks

Alexander_Syniuk
December 20, 2021

You are the Genius!

Israr_Choudhry
December 23, 2021

Fair enough, does it not make sense to represent the layers in the workspace in the same order? the problem is not the order but the difference of order in which it’s represented in the layers menu and the workspace

Niklas
December 25, 2021

Just started working with Figma and I find this quite annoying.

Our application has a side bar with a shadow and a top bar with a title.
The side bar is supposed to cast a shadow on the top bar.

To me, this seems a standard B2B application layout that should be supported - but in Figma I have to choose between either applying the shadow correctly or good automatic resizing.

Constantine_Zuev
December 25, 2021

Ha! I remember having this sort of conversation with developers decade ago while doing macos app. And, oh boy, we debated for weeks.

Coming from Adobe Photoshop experience it seems logical for every designer to see layers in the list arranged by their z-index i.e. topmost on top.

Yet, from from dev standpoint it should be the opposite: fist layer in the list is background, then others in the order they are layered on top of each other.

Each system has its own logic and reasoning. And actually I haven’t thought that “Photoshop” style list is inconvenient in Figma… until I started to use Autolayout a lot. And now I agree, having layers flipped makes a lot more sense. It might be confusing at first, but the list would be logical now.

Roy_Russo
February 1, 2022

Very grateful. Solves a serious problem with prototyping

Nate_Green
February 9, 2022

In Auto Layout, layers are ordered based on their position in the auto layout. This coupling seems unnecessary. In normal frames and groups, layer order (which also determines which layers will overlap others) is independent of the layers’ X/Y coordinates and size, but in Auto Layout, there is no option to change the layer order without also changing the layout.

Usually when I encounter this issue, it’s because I’m trying to pop something from the middle of the list out in front of the others, e.g. a tooltip that’s displayed on hover.

SmartDocs
February 10, 2022

Excellent solution

Marion_Desvilettes
February 23, 2022

You saved my day, thanks!