Defaults for Auto Layout Resizing

Been using auto layout a LOT recently and it’s absolutely game changing. My only gripe is that resizing defaults to fixed width, when 90% of the time I’m using “fill container”. I could see an argument both ways, but curious if others feel the same way.

A solution, although cumbersome, would be to allow users to set a default themselves for auto layout.

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I also have this gripe. I use Auto Layout to build pretty much every section and it’s annoying how sometimes moving frames with Fill Container somewhere else will default to Fixed Width.

I think a good middle ground is default to Fill Container when moving to Auto Layout parent and keep Fixed Width for everything else.

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Not sure, but setting “fill container” as the default might mess up the page when applying auto-layout while “fixed width” sort of mimics the previous state when auto-layout was not added. So seems logical?

Maybe this should take constraints into account and set resizing based on that

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Absolutely agree. I actually came here to write the exact same thing you wrote.

I think the default settings when changing Auto Layout “direction” should be improved.

99% of the time I use fill container.

Shift-A to set items into an auto-layout; but then i have to re-click each separate item to set to fill container. So redundant, all day every day.

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Same here, and it’s a bit annoying and time-consuming going through the layers to ser fill container rather than fixed width.

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I’m experiencing this same issue rn, thought this happens to only me. If anyone here knows mizko, he did a video on constraints and autolayout and he was able to apply constraints to the desktop frame, I still can’t figure out how he was able to do this on his own app…

Yep, I wish at least that when you select elements that are already set to fill, and you wrap them on a new auto layout (Shift + A), to preserve that, and not reset to fixed. For me, that makes no sense at all.
What you think of this suggestion? Wrap elements in autolayout and preserve resizing of children

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I’m dumbfounded by how the Figma team hasn’t included exactly such a feature. It’s as it they don’t want power users.

“We’re busy working on new features” is not an excuse. This is one of the slowest moving mainstream products on the internet.

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I also want to ‘fill container’ 99% of the time. I also dislike how it changes the settings of all children inside it from whatever they were already set to ‘fixed’. I do a lot of work with large nested auto layouts for responsive web design (as opposed to say apps).

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This is killing me every day I use Figma

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until/unless figma puts out a release that addresses this, I wanted to recommend the tip that @Ana_Boyer shared in a recent video about auto layout tips:

hold option and double click on a nested frame’s edge to fill its parent container (which must have auto layout applied).

Ana demos this at 1:42 in the video I linked above! Good trick if you’re into direct manipulation on the canvas over fiddling with inputs in the design panel.

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This needs to be a setting at the very least.

My personal experience is that almost every View I design, the components are going to stretch the full width of the parent, minus padding or the room taken by other sibling components. This does not apply to height.

Auto layout is great because it mimics development, and it forces consistency. Everyone should be using it imo, and clicking to set ‘fill container’ every time is way too time consuming for how important it is.

  • A Setting that influences the default behaviour of Auto Layout. You can set default to fill container, fixed, etc, for any supporting element you place.
  • Allow elements to still be ‘Fill container’, even when they don’t have an auto-layout parent. The fill container property is just not active until it is put inside an auto-layout component. This prevents a component from switching to fixed when moved, and forcing the user to reselect fill container
  • At the very least, a keybind that allows you to set fill container quickly.
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For the love of Dog, yes. If I add up the time I waste clicking through the right object that decided to go to ‘fixed’ on its own accord (even tho the parent component is on Hug / Filled) I could go on holidays during that time. Please, Figma, life is short. Give me a “set all children to hug/fixed/fill” function or something.

It is the same problem for me.