Variants: Set default variant based on order of property values

Right now it seems like the ‘default’ variant is set based on which variant is ‘upper leftmost’ in the variant container frame.

Instead, I suggest decoupling arrangement from precedence, and using the property ordering functionality to determine the default variant. The default variant should simply be the one with the first value for each property, regardless of where it’s placed in the variant frame. This would allow teams to set defaults directly from the properties panel, without having to move components around.

See this thread for some more context: How to set defaults / precedence of variants with multiple properties?

7 Likes

Yeah. It is mush logical based on Variants settings on right panel

Or better - let use choose the default variant (right click on variant → set default). For example when I have the sizing of button (large, medium, small), I don’t want to have the order medium-large-small, just because I want medium to be default (since I use it the most often). This makes mess in logical ordering.

26 Likes

Completely agree with @Matej_Herman and the button example mirrors my problem exactly. Our medium sized buttons is the preferred default but it makes no sense to order it M-L-S and create havoc in the visual hierarchy of a style guide. To be honest, I’m surprised this request doesn’t have more votes.

5 Likes

Absolutely agree with this — if you import an object, it makes way more sense for it to default to the first setting in each property, rather than arbitrarily pulling from the physical position of the element within the component group itself.

@Glenn_Lee’s suggestion to add a manual override for the default component state also makes a lot of sense — if they don’t want to bloat the right-click window, it seems like this could easily replace the Set as Thumbnail option in any instance where you’re right-clicking on a variant.

I’d like to be able to set the default variant, but without breaking the layer order or property order.

I’d just want to ‘mark’ one value as default

9 Likes

I share the same sentiment. I’d like to be able to set a default variant and not rely on a forced selection that is determined by the top-left position in the variant set.

1 Like

default variant should be determined by the order of the property values. 1 Value = Default. I don’t see a reason why this would be based on a visual position. Also if you have a logical linear scalling in you components (xs, sm, lg, xl …) and ‘lg’ would be your default … just from a visual point of view it’s incredibly hard to debug.

I hope this gets resolved soon

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I’d love this to be solved. Although I believe the solution is the one proposed by Matej. We should be able to define the Default variant without it having to affect ordering. Also, an indicator of which is the default variant in the variant dropdown would be great.

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It occurs to me that a viable solution would be to make this part of the Edit/Set default Properties menu option.
If a component is selected (including the variant in the main component) all of the variation selections of that instance are saved as default for the component.

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Just use the same order in which the variant properties have been arranged. It seems intuitive that rearranging this should also change the order in which the are placed but no.

Has this feature been implemented yet? I desperately need this.

I would love this to change. Right now I am hiding elements in my file so the colour palettes show properly.

Default should not be based on either the component being in top-left OR the property value order. I have a case where I would want buttons to have “md” as the default value, but it would not make sense to order the properties “MD / XS / SM / LG / XL”. MD should go between SM and LG. So we should be able to pick a default independent of any ordering.

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Hey All, thanks for your feedback!

We’ll pass this onto our team for future consideration.

2 Likes

When will this be resovled?
My design team is consistently using the wrong component as the default one is not based on our decission but on the order of the variables. We get a lot of design debth with current behaviour.

1 Like

Hi - I would like to be able to set the default variant of a component separate from property order as well. My case is that I have a medium size that should be the default, but xs/sm/md/lg/xl sizes.