Grouping Artboards?

[BBG3]

Do I face any problems if I group and ungroup heavy artboards?

Please share your experience.

Thank you.

[NotMyFault]

It totally depends on what you expect. Grouping impacts so many things like layer or pixel selection, blend mode passthrough, , pixel alignment etc

but the main question is what benefit do you expect from grouped artboards, and do you want to add adjustments or masks, or just organize artboards? Using move tool?

[BBG3]

Hi @NotMyFault.  I just need to organize my artboards. some artboards should be together, I'm going to hide, unhide, and move them.

[NotMyFault]

It is possible to move artboards as child to other artboards. I would recommend to try this out and compare what works better for you.

it is more about avoiding unwanted side effects like the mentioned impact to selection of objects, export, export persona etc.

Using layer colors or layer states may be an alternative option.

[BBG3]

Thank you @NotMyFault . Yes. Each artboard has two slices for exporting.

I will color them and use layer states.

Do you have any solution for moving heavy artboards that are moving very slowly?

[NotMyFault]

Deactivate them before moving. The bounding box will still be visible.

slow rendering is mostly due to layer fx requiring blur (outline, shadow rec). Try switching view modes to inhibit those cpu / gpu heavy features. 

[BBG3]

Thank you @NotMyFault . I checked and tried what you said, but it didn't work for me. I have 92 artboards, each with a 30x40cm symbol + a master symbol combination of 8 symbols. I've found that having 8 symbols inside a symbol makes my artboards hard to move. Also, I checked hiding that symbol won't affect the speed.

If I just remove the symbol of 8 symbols, my artboards can move very smoothly, but I can't. I need it. 

Thanks again

Please let me know if you find other solutions.

[Iltirtar]

On 3/11/2025 at 8:59 PM, BBG3 said:

I've found that having 8 symbols inside a symbol makes my artboards hard to move.

The symbols feature was implemented in version 1, I think, and has remained pretty much unchanged since then. It is a very basic and unpolished feature. In my experience, it is not a feature suitable for serious work. If you have nested symbols in large quantities (a you probably have, since you have 92 artboards), or yor symbols are complex, you are probably asking the program more than it is able to give, and you are set up for problems.

My suggestion would be to organize your project as a lighter structure, or not to rely on symbols at all. It is sad, but I don't think symbols can be reliably used in complex documents, unless the symbols are few and very straightforward. Also, it doesn't seem that Serif is giving too much love to the feature, so I would not expect improvements anytime soon.

[BBG3]

Thank you @Iltirtar. I tested the abilities of the symbols feature. It needs some improvements, like replacing the added symbols, speed, and renaming symbols, global colors, but I love how it handles very large-sized symbols like 30cm to 40cm and nested symbols. Until I don't move things, it works very well for me.

Thanks for the heads up. I will keep my eyes on that. 

[Iltirtar]

6 hours ago, BBG3 said:

Until I don't move things, it works very well for me.

So it works well, until it doesn't... I had a similar problem with symbols, and my solution was not to use them at all; I lost some nice features and had to adjust workflow, but at least I got the job done. Your experience might be different, though, and maybe somebody will come up with a better workaround.

One thing you could consider, depending on what you are doing or trying to achieve, is using embedded/linked documents instead of nested symbols. It might not be a suitable solution in most cases, but it's worth considering.

[NotMyFault]

Linked documents bring their own can of worms:

• anti-aliasing may fail
• nested child or mask layers give unexpected results when files contain transparency
• layer fx may give unexpected results
• Linked files locations can cause broken links, especially when editing the file on multiple places.
• color format or profile may deviate to parent document 
• Lots of bugs, either unfixed or eagerly waiting for regression in future if fixed, or newly coming as collateral damage every time a new feature is introduced (like shape builder)

 

it is a complete mess. Neither symbols in Designer, linked layers in Photo, nor linked files are suitable for the intended usage due to countless restrictions, unfixed bugs and added complexity 

[BBG3]

9 hours ago, Iltirtar said:

using embedded/linked documents instead of nested symbols

Thank you. I wanted to use that, but I need to examine and change the colors on each design with the background color of each artboard (92) to get the result I need.

[NotMyFault]

Global colors : are only document wide global, not system wide.

another failure or severe over-promise