Fix Layer Position

A Sketch plugin that lets you quickly move a layer to a predetermined (X,Y) position.

In other words:

1. Configure your target X,Y position, one time after install. Set it to 0,0 or -50,10 or whatever position you always need.
2. Any future time you need to move a layer to that position, just hit the keyboard shortcut and it’s done.

Why?

You might use this for any number of reasons. But I built it to speed up the following repetitive task that I do every day (and I’m probably not alone):

1. View some page in my web application, in a browser.
2. Take a screenshot of the browser window, at the same viewport size every time.
3. Paste the screenshot into Sketch, using the same artboard size every time, so that I can start designing & editing on top of the screenshot.

When I quickly snap a screenshot of my browser window, I get the viewport – which I want – but I also get the browser bar, outer chrome, and Apple’s big ol’ window drop shadow. I don’t need any of that! I could crop each screenshot after I take it, but that sounds like work, which sucks.

Instead, I really just want to move the screenshot on my artboard so that the viewport lines up with the artboard dimensions – in other words, so that the top left corner of the viewport (in the screenshot) is at position 0,0 on my artboard.

With Fix Layer Position, this takes less than a second.

Usage

The plugin has two actions available:

Configure Target Position: Set this up once, the way you want it, and Sketch will store & remember your target position. The default is 0,0 but you can pick any X,Y coordinate position.

Example: I work on a web application that’s desktop-only. The minimum window size we design for is 1400x720, so that’s the size I make all my screens as I design them, and that’s the size at which I snap screenshots of the current app, to bring them into Sketch and play around with them. Through manual repositioning, I discovered that when I snap a screenshot of my app in Chrome, and bring it into Sketch, I need to place it at -56,-106 relative to my 1400x720 artboard, so that the browser bar and drop shadow are hidden beyond the artboard edges. Therefore, I configure my target position to be -56,-106.

Fix Layer Position (ctrl+shift+9): If a layer is selected, instantly move that layer to your target position.

You can also access both these actions in the run menu in Sketch Runner (see below).

Installation

Install with Sketch Runner

With Sketch Runner, just go to the install command and search for Fix Layer Position. Runner allows you to manage plugins and do much more to speed up your workflow in Sketch. Download Runner here.

Install manually

1. Download and open fix-layer-position-master.zip
2. Navigate to Fix Layer Position.sketchplugin. Double-clicking it should prompt Sketch to install the plugin and notify you upon success.

Acknowledgements

This plugin is heavily indebted to:

• Sketch Commands by Ale Muñoz, for the “Set Position” command code.
• Sketch Remember Something by @abynim, for the structural template to handle local data storage.
• Half Me by Roman Shamin and Move It by Dawid Wozniak, for related inspiration.

Licensed under the MIT License.

Contact

Follow @oneill_jim on Twitter. For design-type stuff, check out Pixels for Humans.