Illustrator v29.6 - Arrange Artboards works differently

[hopedivisionza]

As much as I love new updates I have had to revert back to the previous version due to a function that has changed. Purely because I am quite meticulous on structure and alignment. So it's not a breaking feature I might just be full of it.

With the new update the Arrange artboards function now works differentely.

Previously once you have set the Layout>Columns>Spacing and hit enter the pages would align centre to the canvas. Now with the new update once I hit enter it wants me to to place the selected artboards where I want them. Am I missing something as to how to centre this from here on or is this no longer vailable.

[Doug A Roberts]

I haven't personally tested yet, but it's possible that the new behaviour broke some workflows. Please add your vote and comments here:

Allow legacy behavior for "Rearrange Artboards" – Adobe Illustrator

[Abhishek Rao]

Thanks for reporting this, @hopedivisionza. I'm checking with the product team regarding the change in the "Rearrange Artboards" behavior in v29.6. I'll share an update here as soon as I hear back. Appreciate your patience!

^

Abhishek 

[defaultd26wm1405pgo]

Yes please either revert to the previous way the "rearrange artboards" worked, or give the option to have the "legacy" behaviour, my workflow has been completly disrupted - it often involves working on 20-30 artboards at a time and then moving them into a different order, previously this was really simple but now with the manual click it is actually unusable!

[Elena_BCN]

I´m adding another vote about this same issue to the UserVoice request. This new feature should be an option to choose and the previous default way to rearrange artboards should still be availble.

[FourtyTwo]

While I'm sure some people welcome Illustrator's new features for rearranging the artboards, I have found it to be finicky and weird. There should be an option that defaults to the center of the work area, like it used to do automatically. This new behavior, of having to select where the artboards go just complicates a once simple process.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @FourtyTwo,

I understand that this functionality is important to you. Would you mind creating a UserVoice for this feature request (https://adobe.ly/4l7XC7X) and adding your comments there? Doing this will help us prioritize this request, and you will be notified of any updates.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

[Elena_BCN]

I could not agree more! I have to rearrange artboards very frequently due to the nature of my projects and now I have to click twice as much to perform this simple action... it totally disrupts my usual workflow and adds more work for me, plus now I have to eyeball to keep all the artboard in the center somehow.

It should have been an option to choose - if you want to select the artboard placement or want to use the usual default action. 

I´ll try to add this request/vote to the UserVoice list...

[diolim]

Hello, the new addition of the mouse cursor to rearrange selected artboards has made the tool useless for me. I used the old rearrange tool to ensure that the artboards were aligned perfectly to rounded pixels in the X and Y axis, to ensure that png exports will not have any extra pixels. 

Please is there any way to turn off the mouse cursor option, or to have it snap to whole pixels properly? 

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

You may want to vote here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/500...

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @hopedivisionza,

Thanks again for raising this!

I checked in with the product team regarding the updated behavior of the Rearrange Artboards feature in v29.6. They've confirmed that this is a new feature introduced in the June release. It was implemented based on prior user feedback via UserVoice.

That said, the team is aware of the recent feedback about the updated behavior and understands that it may have disrupted some workflows. . In the meantime, I'd encourage you to continue sharing your thoughts on the official UserVoice thread here:
https://adobe.ly/45FCYXL

Your input really helps the team prioritize improvements. I'll keep you posted as soon as there's an update.

Abhishek

[Arel]

Trying to 'Rearrange artboards' has resulted in 4 freezes so far today for a file that is 276KB in size with only 4 artboards. My computer is on OS Sequoia 15.6 (Mac) with plenty of memory and disk space available. I don't have time in the midst of my workday to set up a User voice account again and then be inundated with email about an issue that isn't yet solved.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Arel,

Sorry to hear about the performance issues. Could you confirm the version of Illustrator currently installed, and if Illustrator behaves this way with specific files, so I can better assist you?

Also, try the suggestions shared in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4liMGUa) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[Arel · Accepted solution]

Hello,
An update is now available in my CC dashboard, so I did update Illustrator and the issue now seems to be resolved. Thank you — I appreciate your response!

[MrMensah]

Yeah I totally agree and have spent way to long trying to center artboards to the pasteboard. The auto-center feature really helped me to meticulously layout my artboards. I understand the update but completely removing the feature really messed with my workflow. My suggestion would be to add options to the Rearrange Artboards dialog box where you can either 1) manually enter X/Y coordinates, 2) automatically center to the pasteboard, or 3) manually place with the cursor.

[Flávio Abreu]

Olá. Na nova atualização do Illustrator, quando faço ''Reorganizar'' na ferramentas das pranchetas, ele ''questiona'' onde quero reorganizar e antigamente reorganizava ao centro. Como desativar essa opção?

[creative explorer]

@Flávio Abreu If you don't want Illustrator to automatically arrange your artboards, simply avoid using the "Rearrange All Artboards" option?!

[Flávio Abreu]

Mas eu quero que ele organize as pranchetas automáticamente, mas ele não faz isso agora.

Ele solicita onde eu quero organiza-las, não o faz de forma automática.

[Ton Frederiks]

If you want the old behaviour now, you need to go back to the previous version, and don't forget to vote here, so that you will be warned when this is fixed:

You may want to vote here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/500...

[stuartm90623915]

You can't! Unfortuntely you'll need to go back to version 29.5.1 to keep the centred and pixel aligned arranged artboard.  I'm sticking on version 29.5.1 until this hideous update has been fixed.

[Will-1999]

I don't particularly like (to put it mildy). It doesn't allow to have pixel perfect artboards.

[defaultplkqp8kyjbph]

Illustrator puts a white hailine at the adge of any artboard that is positioned as a fraction of a pixel.

The new artboard rearrange feature prevents me from positioning artboards to an whole pixel. So, there is not way to prevent the white hairline.

I have to manually position my first artboard, then do the math and position each board afterwards.

It's Ridiculous.

Please either have it snap the first artboard to a whole pixel or go back the the way it worked before.

[defaultd26wm1405pgo]

Yes totally agree, please Adobe, either revert to the previous way the "rearrange artboards" worked, or give the option to have the "legacy" behaviour, my workflow has been completly disrupted - it often involves working on 20-30 artboards at a time and then moving them into a different order, previously this was really simple but now with the manual click it is actually unusable

[Abjunqueira]

Hi, I'm having an issue with the Rearrange Artboards function in Illustrator.

Before, when I used Window > Artboards > Rearrange Artboards, it would automatically organize them after I clicked "OK". Now, it asks me to manually click on the canvas to place the layout and sometimes it freezes or crashes the app. I’ve already tried restarting, resetting preferences, creating a new file, turning GPU on/off, nothing works. Any ideas on how to fix this or bring back the automatic behavior?

Thanks!

[Doug A Roberts]

This was changed in 29.6. The old behaviour should be available by a toggle in recent Beta versions (and thus soon in the general release):

Allow legacy behavior for "Rearrange Artboards" – Adobe Illustrator