Auto-layout nested groups made my Figma file crawl to a halt

Last week I built a menu system with about 40 nested auto-layout frames across 5 pages... it worked fine at first, but by Thursday my file took 15 seconds just to switch tabs. I thought it was my laptop, but after deleting some layers and testing, the lag was definitely tied to the deep stacking. Turns out, using simple components instead of nesting everything keeps the file snappy... has anyone else hit this wall with heavy auto-layout?

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perez.cole11h ago

Hold on, I gotta push back here! I've got way more than 40 nested auto-layouts in my files and they run just fine. The problem isn't the nesting, it's probably how you're building your components or maybe some rogue effects like drop shadows that are killing performance. Honestly, components can be even worse if you're not careful with their overrides and variants, because every instance is basically running its own mini-database. I've had files that were pure components lag way harder than my deep nested groups ever did. Keeping the nesting and just being smart about what goes inside, like using plain frames or vectors instead of super complex elements, has kept everything buttery smooth for me. Sounds like a classic case of blaming the tool instead of the setup.