Elements keep moving onto an artboard

[Jaeyde]

I have two artboards right up against each other and I am trying to add a file to them which is larger than one artboard alone (the art boards need to be the size of a sheet of printer paper), hence why I bumped them up against each other. The file had all the elements grouped when I pasted it to the artboards and of course it attached itself to one of the artboards, possibly one was selected. So I dragged it out of the artboard as a separate layer and ungrouped it so I could work on moving some of the elements around a bit. The minute I click on an element though it jumps onto Artboard 1. I don't understand why it is doing this, or what I'm doing wrong, or how I can stop it from happening. 

Below you can see inside artboard 1 is a text box that should be with the other elements that are above that artboard

[thomaso]

You can avoid such unwanted move of layers to an/any artboard by creating an artboard which includes by its dimensions all objects. As shown below artboards can overlap each other and also can be nested in other artboards. Regardless of whether it makes sense it can at least be used as workaround to avoid the unwanted layer jumps.

Currently this behaviour appears to be on purpose (by design), at least as long the use of artboards automatically has "Clip to Canvas" activated and thus does not display those parts of objects that are placed on positions where they exceed their artboard (e.g. "Artboard 4" in the screenshot below).

This way it also gets avoided that elements which are placed across several artboards (as in your screenshot) appear if only these artboards get printed or exported. So in the sample below an export of Artboard 2 does not contain the dashed stroke because it is not a layer of this artboard, accordingly Artboard 1 exports the black line drawing bot none of the other artboards, even though they visually overlap in the layout view, while Artboard 3 will show the upper part of Artboard 4 on export because the latter is a nested layer inside the former.

If you want the black line drawing in your screenshot to appear on both of your artboards you would need to place the objects on both artboards (possibly as copies), otherwise it would not get output with any of these artboards. Additionally to the hierarchy in the Layers panel also the Layer & Slices thumbnails in the Export Persona indicate visually which artboard will show what items on output.

... and artboards 1-4 after export:

       

[Jaeyde]

Thank you for your detailed reply. It seems like I can't put my imported sewing pattern file as a separate layer over the artboards I have to make them on the artboards.  I was using the two artboards side by side and of printer paper size (actually an inch smaller to account for margins and bleeds) to show me where the pattern overlaps, and would need taping together once printed.

The plan worked fine while the pattern file was grouped on it's own layer, the problem occurred when I ungrouped it and tried to adjust the pattern contents so instructions and labels were on the second printed sheet as well as the first.  I can of course just manually drag everything back to where I wanted it but this seems a very time consuming and ugly workaround. 

My screenshot was a very simple part of the complete pattern, showing only one piece, I have around 20 pattern piece that vitally need to be an exact size.  My intention was to add more boards both horizontally and vertically and fit all the patterns on as 'best fit' to reduce paper waste. Adding cut and tape lines to the pieces that spanned multiple sheets of paper. Making one huge artboard would not help me know where the paper would end, at least not without a whole lot of measuring. 

Is there a better way I'm overlooking, I have not really used the programme much and could easily have overlooked the obvious. 

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Jaeyde said:

Making one huge artboard would not help me know where the paper would end,

As far I understand you wouldn't use the huge main artboard not for output but to place content that doesn't get moved unwantedly to any other artboard.

For output you could either create Slices in the Export Persona on this 1 huge main artboard, every slice with the wanted output dimensions.
Or you create artboards nested in the huge main artboard. Note that slices and artboards both can get positioned overlapping.

Since artboards appear to be a lot easier to handle than slices I tried below the artboard example. The artboard colors are only to show in the layout window all artboard names (unfortunately white text color only) and their overlapping areas. The exported PDF contains the huge main artboard on one page, and each nested artboard A1 – A3 on separate pages (you can export either ALL or just 1 single artboard at a time, so I choosed all).

The Transform panel (and also, if wanted, a custom ruler origin) gives you control over the dimensions and position of every single artboard.

Note in the export the overlapping parts of the black drawing: It shows that you don't need to export with cropping marks (which reduces the available page space / why you made your artboards currently 1 inch smaller.)

Edited September 24, 2022 by thomaso

[Jaeyde]

Thank you, I think I understand, I'll go and play around with it. I appreciate your time explaining.