As editor and maybe also as viewer I want to be able to see where specific components are used. So I’m basically talking about way to find instances of a component across files.
There’s a plugin called “Instance Finder” but unfortunately it’s just working within one file not across.
For huge design systems with multiple files and different designers working on it this is far from ideal.
This idea is not new but since the other topics are closed I guess I need to open a new thread.
We’ve moved your reply to a more relevant feature request thread. Be sure to also vote, so we have a more accurate gauge of interest from the community! ☝️
I would like to know if there is a quick way to see if the component on library is still used, if so how many times, in which project files it is located, if there are duplicates etc.?
The analytics page is not really helpful (too global, we need to search the component we have in mind).
I would like to see all the data of component directly on the artboard (right click menu?). Also see if the component is a ghost (not used ever so we can kill him for good).
An analytics page of the component in popin or slide page with quick access to manage it.
It would be amazing if it were possible to click on an instance and see a list of all the elements in which that instance is being used (in the same page, in all pages and in all files).
Scenario:
If I’m a new designer at a company with a giant design system and organization issues, and the only tool I have is the search field, which requires me to copy and paste the name of each of the hundreds or thousands of instances to know if my change will destroy some element… this is crazy!
Solution:
• In the right menu, add an area that would show:
This selected instance is being used:
• 59 times (In 3 files / 14 pages) :
This would be a super awesome feature. In managing a design system it is important to track how often components are used and get some design KPIs. Get some metrics over time. If it’s still used or not. I really would love to have this feature to understand the impact of certain components → deprecate/advance.
I have a large project going on, with lots of components and variants. It is a pain to have to go through each page to see where a certain component has been used or not.
Taking this into account it would be great if in the future, we can click on a main component and see the usage of that component throughout the Figma file.
Maybe highlight each of the pages in that file that has that certain component, and being able to go to that component directly!
Search function doesn’t work, if we rename the instance.
We still need a solution for this. 🥲
We are a larger design system, have over 100 of “main components”, and around 50 “asset components” (that will be consumed by many main components.)
For example, we have a “header” asset, it’s consumed in both Dialog and Drawer.
But we rename it “Dialog header” and “Drawer header”
Then you won’t be able to find that.
Hey there, thank you for raising this feature request with us! As a workaround there is a plugin you could use to find all Instances of a Component used in your file. Also, I have merged your post with a similar one.
I also want to emphasize the importance of this topic. I just posted a post of my own about the difficulty with the library manager
I work in a large project where i have a need to find and edit component variable instances in multiple files. The library manager gives me false numbers of usages in files. So basically i find each variant use case per file and use the Instance finder plugin and often find nothing.
What Figma needs, is a library manager that can list each use case individually and direct to them, and in addition to that, a native tool to find each instance of the same component and/or variant even if the instances are renamed.
Bumping for visibility. This feature request thread was started in Oct '22, and I have continued to feel significant friction in lacking cross-file instance finding for several years at this point.
Ideally you go to master file and be able to visualise where this is used in all the files.
In my case in our team we have a master file for the design system but multiple files for each functionality.
To find where E.g. an old icon was / or if it is still used I have to manually search all the files . It is a lot of work. Specially if I want to redesign the app, it is basically easier to do it just from scratch
Would be nice to be able to do a global instance search, esp when updating components in libraries that use other components. No idea if they need reset or took the changes correctly without manually going through each instance.
We use 3 different kinds of cookies. You can choose which cookies you want to accept. We need basic cookies to make this site work, therefore these are the minimum you can select. Learn more about our cookies.
