First on top layer order in Auto-Layout

I like to arrange my layers from top to bottom. But when I apply auto-layout to a bunch of layers, it reverses their order. Why on Earth it does that? It messes up with the way I‘ve been arranging layers for years.

For example, first comes Head, then Body, not vice-versa.

I also arrange the layers from top to bottom, and I don’t like that Auto Layout changes the order. By the way, this is the problem we face if we arrange the layers in reverse:

Hmm that actually makes sense.

Here’s Figma’s answer to the “why?”:

I definitely appreciated reading the above thought process that landed them at the current implementation.

+1
It’s really annoying, that I’m forced to remove auto layout to reorder layers and get the shadows right and sometimes to stick the components.

When working in Auto-layout, the layers on the left panel are in the reverse order from the elements on the artboard. It would he helpful if they matched order so that the top element on the artboard is the the first layer on the left panel, not the last. Also if using a horizontal layout elements going from left to right would be top to bottom on the layer panel.

i disagree, because the layer panel is shown in order of the layer’s z-index. flipping this is actually less intuitive and would cause problems everywhere else.

I understand that what you’re describing is how it works when you’re not working in Auto-layout and it makes sense. However, Auto-layout works with a vertical and horizontal direction (X & Y), not with the z-index.

I don’t find this intuitive, I agree with the reporter. Layer panel systematically in reverse order compared to your object in the canvas.

In the case of auto-layout, where items do not overlap, Z index does not seem to matter to me. I guess we could consider the top object of a vertical auto-layout could be the one on the top layer too. At the moment Figma considers the bottom object is on the top layer, not sure why…

I agree it’s super annoying.
I suppose it comes from the fact that when you design a list, you create the first item, then the second, then the 3rd, etc. in that order. And you tend to consider the first is the most important one and therefore should be the one on “the top” casting shadow on everyone else. That’s because the way you read is either left to right (in most cultures) and top to bottom I guess…

But most for most tools, when you add a new object it has to be on the top of everything, simply to make sure you’re going to see it!

So the top-most in our intuition is actually the bottom-most in the tool’s logic.

We would need a way to gracefully combine those two logics…