Layer names can get really messy when layer renaming is enabled, and the number never seems to be very useful for me. (ex I don’t remember what “Frame 324” is, I usually just reference a named parent/child for context). To me, it’s just additional noise in my layer list.
Thankfully, Figma offers an option to disable this, “Rename Duplicate Layers”. This solves my issue when duplicating, so I don’t end up with “List Cell 2, List Cell 3, etc”.
But…
New frames & groups still get a number added by default. This can sometimes result in seemly very random numbers appended to a new group or frame, depending on how it’s added, or what already exists in a Project.
For example, drawing multiple Frames will cause them to increment, but if you group an item and apply auto-layout, it starts again at 1. See this example.
The behaviour I’d rather have
- Don’t append any number to layers when this option is disabled (New frames would simply be “Frame”, and you could create multiple elements with the same name)
- Rename “Rename Duplicate Layers” to something like “Auto number layers” for clarity
The benefits
- Cleaner layer lists for users than don’t use auto-numbered layers
- Functionality become most consistant with expectations around duplicated layers
Do other use autogenerated layer numbering? In my personal opinion I’d prefer “Rename Duplicate Layers” be disabled by default, or the functionality removed entirely, as the value seems unclear to me. (I’d love to know if it does for others though!)