Artboard tool working oddly

[spedwig]

Recently updated to Designer 1.71 on Mac, and I'm experiencing new odd behavior working with artboards and the artboard tool.

In past, I could select an artboard using the artboard tool and then alt-drag to duplicate the artboard. Now, when I do so, it creates a new artboard where I'm dragging. 

Similarly, in the past, I could select an artboard using the artboard tool and drag it to move it. Now, when I do so, it creates a new artboard where I'm dragging.

 

It seems I now need to select the artboard using the artboard tool and then switch to the "move" arrow tool in order to either move or (while holding alt) duplicate the artboard. This seems like a huge non-intuitive step backward, involving lots of extra mouse-clicks and tool-switching.

Or is there something I'm missing?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, spedwig said:

It seems I now need to select the artboard using the artboard tool and then switch to the "move" arrow tool in order to either move or (while holding alt) duplicate the artboard.

You shouldn't need the Artboard Tool at all. Just use the Move Tool from the beginning. Alt+drag or Ctrl/Cmd+drag (depending on whether you use Windoss or Mac) will create the duplicate and move it. Using Alt bypasses snapping, so Ctrl/Cmd would be my first choice.

[spedwig]

Didn't realize I could select artboards using the move tool by clicking on the labels. I always used the artboard tool to... work with artboards. Thanks for the tip.

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, spedwig said:

Didn't realize I could select artboards using the move tool by clicking on the labels. I always used the artboard tool to... work with artboards. Thanks for the tip.

You're welcome. That also worked in 1.6, I believe.

I cannot comment on whether the behavior you described of using the Artboard Tool to copy artboards changed, as I never used it that way.

However, the Designer Help still says you can move an artboard using the Artboard Tool:

Quote

To reposition an artboard:

Do one of the following:

• Using the Artboard Tool or Move Tool, drag the selected artboard.
• Using the Move Tool, drag an artboard's label.
• With an artboard selected, on the Transform panel, adjust the X and/or Y settings.

For that first bullet, the Move Tool will drag an artboard just by clicking in it and dragging. The Artboard Tool won't, as you mentioned. It only works if you click on the Artboard's label. So I suspect something is not working correctly, because if clicking on the artboard label were required then the Artboard Tool should be listed in the second bullet, instead.

Either the behavior has changed intentionally, but the Help didn't get updated. Or the Help is correct and there's a bug in 1.7 and the dragging should work.

It could be an intentional change to allow you to draw a new artboard on top of (but not contained within) an old artboard, I suppose. But the Help should still be updated, if that's the case.

[Dan C]

46 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

So I suspect something is not working correctly, because if clicking on the artboard label were required then the Artboard Tool should be listed in the second bullet, instead.

 Either the behavior has changed intentionally, but the Help didn't get updated. Or the Help is correct and there's a bug in 1.7 and the dragging should work.

Thanks for letting us know, I'm not currently certain if this change was intentional or if the help file hasn't been updated so I'll get this logged to be investigated