Settings GUI panel for the plugin

[vic-tian]

Ideally we can have a GUI panel where the artboard options would be reflected. I'd like to see a new option that allows me to control which artboard is managed by the plugin and call the plugin settings panel from the inspector.

The properties of the plugin ultimately would be as a pop over menu where we can modify padding and renaming pattern.

[edwardbattistini]

although, I could deal with a menu item, as these settings should only be defined once I believe ?
But the pop over sums up pretty much what we need ( I need ) for now.

I can't stop thinking this plugin will lead us to visual branching

[mrrocks]

+100 to the previous comment :)

[allisonacs]

What @edwardbattistini shows in the image is exactly the behavior I would need this plugin to support.

[vic-tian]

With increased complexity sometimes it is hard to figure out names and order. It would be nice if the artboard manager not only deals with the visual order, but also with the logical one inside the layers list.

Here is an example of a prototype I'm making, where I have to illustrate a lot of screens. As the first row is linear, it is easy for me to work with it. As this is a prototype I would love if each new artboard I'm adding follows the rule of auto-naming, so I don't have to manually create my names all the time and thus risk typos. This linear prototype is then send to InVision.

Another case is when I have a lot of small screens that are not logically connected. Then the arrangement of artboards is purely for ease of use:

I would like to think about all the cases of settings/options that would be needed in order to help the development. If you make rules for name changes, they should be reflected in a visual panel somewhere where we can have a fine control over them. Once you modify the settings, you should be able to just use the plugin to arrange your artboards the way you want them to be arranged.

The hardest case is where I have several flows into the same page, and I would like to arrange the artboards in a way that helps me determine all the possibilities. Usually I create a vertical column of main steps and then horizontal row of progression over time.

Ideally I would like to manage a whole row or column at the same time. Is there a way we can visualize this in Sketch? I mean - to show which column is managed how?

[an-ik]

It would be cool if there was an edit feature where there was a placeholder grid of unlimited artboards. Once you go into edit mode, you can drag and drop artboards anywhere on the grid so you can have artboard branching and not just a rigid grid of left to right, top to bottom.

[vic-tian]

One of the things this plugin saves me doing is actually organizing the artboards. In that case I would not want to use a grid layout to manage my artboards (If I have more than 40 artboards, that's really slow and hard to do). Ideally I should be able to control branching and direction from a GUI panel instead of manually dragging elements around. When I have to reposition artboards I would like to have a control on the side that would allow me to change position — move left/right or top/down. Which sets direction of ordering.

[an-ik]

I like to organize my art boards, but I don't like to manually distribute them horizontally and vertically. This is where the plug in would save me time. In my particular use case, I use inVision's craft plugin to link art boards together. Visually, I like to see how my screens branch out to each other so I need flexibility on what art boards go where on the grid. A simple drag and drop onto a placeholder grid would save me a ton of time.

[johanneslamers]

@bomberstudios any updates on this?