I’m trying to convert existing symbols from smart layout to stack layout, and it’s mildly infuriating. I’m experiencing a variety of bugs that waste a gigantic amount of time. I don’t even know where to begin. Here are some examples, but it’s not an exhaustive list of all the problems I had:
Stacks randomly ignore constraints like frame padding or alignment ;
Background on instances of symbols never disappear (even when removing background from master symbol, or symbol instances) ;
Fixed stack width reset unexpectedly to previous value ;
Symbol instances are missing elements from the symbol ;
And on top of that, having the “undo” action that doesn’t work 90% of the time make the whole experience very upsetting (I know you are already aware of the problem, I’m just really annoyed it hasn’t been fixed yet!)
I run into many significant issues that it gives me the impression this hasn’t been tested. And I’m happy to occasionally help debugging and improving the product, but this feels totally on another deeper level.
Thanks for reporting this. Here are my answers and some follow-up questions.
Stacks randomly ignore constraints like frame padding or alignment
Stacks and Smart layout work quite differently. Smart Layout allowed different spacings and layers were kept as-is when adding Smart Layout.
Stacks work differently: you can only have one spacing value for direct child layers and the same alignment is applied to all elements. You can get different spacings and alignments (like indents) with stacks, but building those is different compared to Smart Layout.
These rules may seem a bit strict at first, but they make Stacks very predictable and easy to use.
Background on instances of symbols never disappear
Can you share a sample file of the symbols that are keeping the background layer? I made a quick test with a button, and the background does disappear and gets applied to the frame, se this video for reference
Fixed stack width reset unexpectedly to previous value
Can you share a bit more about how or when the fixed value is reset?
Symbol instances are missing elements from the symbol
Can you share a sample file for this case too?
Undo not working
We released a fix today, version 2025.1.3 to fix a couple of reports related to undo not working. I tested the reports we had and the problem was solved in those cases. Can you try updating and letting us know if you’re still experiencing undo issues?
And last but not least: Smart Layout is still supported, you can edit existing symbols with Smart Layout or create new ones. You can keep using them as usual while you explore Stacks, which can feel different when you’re used to Smart Layout.
I’ve been a Figma user for years, I’m very familiar on how Stacks work. What I meant is I will apply padding to a stack and the stack will just ignore the values and behave differently (randomly as far as I can tell).
I’d be happy to share a sample file so you can experience these problems. Can you guide me on how to do so?
I agree with other users on the removal of Smart Layout from the main user interface and buried into a menu drop down under ‘arrange’ is premature. I think the best outcome is to have both Stack and Smart layout icons in the sidebar next to each other. So we can decide which layout is best for the grouping we are making.
This feature was the most used one to create auto spacing content and is still the best option to create blocks of content that are not evenly spaced.
It seems now that to create content with different spacing, we either have to use multiple stacks within frames and pinning, or create stacks with hidden blocks into control spacing?… so many blocks!!!
Whereas you previously you could just design something quickly, visually space it and Sketch would do a pretty good job of proportionally scaling that group in one direction. Which was great for quickly creating components.
I hope that the next update, address the spacing issue, or we are really going to a lot of evenly spaced cards
