Overrides

An override is a change made on an instance, or on a layer inside it, that replaces the main component's value for that instance only. This page covers what an instance can change, how to undo a change, and what survives a swap or a variant switch.

How overrides work

• A property without an override follows the main component; an overridden one keeps the instance's value. Which properties accept one: What an instance can override.
• Overrides are kept per property, with one exception: the content of a text layer and its character styling are one override. Changing the weight of one word also stops the text from following the component's wording.
• The structure inside an instance is locked: you can't add, reorder, move or group layers, except inside a slot. Pressing Delete on a layer inside an instance hides it, which is a visibility override.
• To change structure, edit the main component: right-click the instance or a layer inside it → Go to source object, or click the component icon in the Properties panel header (tooltip Go to main component).
• A property bound to an input is locked on the instance: change the input row instead. An override wins over a value bound to a variable (overrides and bindings).

Seeing and resetting overrides

Where: Properties panel, with one instance or one layer inside an instance selected.

Indicators

• An overridden field has a blue border; in a row of buttons, the selected button has it.
• A blue dot follows the title of a section whose list is overridden (Fill, Stroke, Effects, Highlight) and the label of an overridden checkbox.
• Indicators show only while exactly one layer is selected. A purple outline means something else: the property is bound.

Resets

More actions is the tooltip of the three-dot button in the Properties panel header.

Reset	Where	Clears
Reset plus the field's name, such as Reset Opacity or Reset Fills	Right-click an overridden field, its label or its section title, with one layer selected	That property. On a text layer's content and character styling it reads Reset Text & Styling and clears both.
Reset overrides	More actions, with layers inside an instance selected, nested instances included; never for a top-level instance	Every override on each selected layer. Layers inside them keep theirs.
Reset name	More actions, one top-level instance selected	A manual rename; the name follows the component again.
Reset size	Same	A manual size (Instance size).
Reset inputs	Same	All assigned input values and the variable bindings on the rows (assigning inputs).
Reset all changes	Same	All overrides on the instance and on the layers inside it, the input values, and a manual name and size.

A bound property offers no Reset, only its unbind entry.

Instance size

Where: Properties panel header → More actions → Reset size.

An instance follows the size of its main component — width, height, minimum and maximum size, sizing mode — until you give it a size of its own. Its name follows the component's name until you rename it.

• The instance stops following when you resize it, type a width or height, set a minimum or maximum size, change its sizing mode or its Flex grow factor, or scale it with the Scale tool. A size change that layout causes, such as a Fill instance growing with its parent, doesn't count.
• Reset size clears all of these at once. Right-clicking an overridden size or sizing field offers the same reset, labeled by what is overridden, such as Reset Size or Reset Size and Flex sizing.

Swapping an instance

Where: select one or more instances → Properties panel header → click the component name.

• The header label of an instance is a dropdown of the document's components and component sets.
• Entries that would make a component contain itself are left out: for an instance that sits inside a component, the component itself and every component that nests it.
• Choosing a component set puts the instance on the first variant in the Layers panel. Within the current set, use Variant and State.
• With several instances selected, the list holds only what every selected instance can use. Instances that already belong to the chosen component or set keep their variant.
• What a swap keeps: Overrides across a variant switch.

Overrides across a variant switch

In the editor, choosing another Variant or State, or swapping the component, discards every override of the instance — on the layers inside it and on the instance itself. Three things stay: a manually set name, a manually set size, and input values (which ones). Use inputs for anything that has to survive.

In preview, a component behavior changing state, or a Set Component Variant action, carries the overrides over to the new variant, together with the changes made during the session:

• An override moves to the layer with the same type and the same name, anywhere in the new variant.
• Several layers with the same type and name are matched by their order of appearance, so adding or reordering such a duplicate in one variant shifts the match.
• The text layer bound to Input value matches regardless of its name.
• A nested instance matches only when it also points at a component, or component set, of the same name.

A Reset action on the instance clears the session changes that a switch carried over.

Nested instances

Select an instance nested inside another instance to change it for that outer instance only.

• You can swap it from the header dropdown, change its Variant and State, assign its input rows and override the layers inside it.
• All of this is kept as overrides of the outermost instance. Reset overrides on the nested instance restores the component, variant and input values set in the main component; so does Reset all changes on the outer instance, while its Reset inputs does not.
• A nested instance can't be detached on its own (detaching).

Related

• Component inputs — per-instance values that survive a variant switch.
• Slots — instance-specific content inside a component.
• Variants and interactive states — component sets and states.
• How interactions run — an instance's own interactions are not overrides; object behaviors work the same way.

What an instance can override

The table covers layers inside an instance; the instance itself follows below. A locked field is disabled in the Properties panel. Fields without a visible label are named by their tooltip.

Group	Overridable	Locked
Layer	Name, visibility (Toggle visibility)	Lock, Use as mask, order in the Layers panel
Position and size	—	X, Y, width, height, rotation, Constraints, aspect-ratio lock, minimum and maximum size
Appearance	Opacity, Blend mode, Corner radius and individual corners, Fill, Stroke, Effects	Clip content, Fill adjustments, Stroke adjustments
Stroke settings	Stroke width and individual sides, Stroke position, caps, Join, Miter limit, Dashes	—
Text	Content; font, size, line height, letter and word spacing, decoration, Highlight, fill; horizontal and vertical alignment; paragraph spacing and indent; text sizing mode; Oversized content	Content tag
Shapes	Oval sweep angle and inner gap, polygon corner count, star ray count and inner radius	Vector points and segments, a vector's corner radius
Item in a Flex or Grid container	Horizontal sizing and Vertical sizing (Fixed, Fill, Hug content), Flex grow factor, Auto margins, Horizontal alignment and Vertical alignment in a grid cell	Grid placement: Column, Row, Column span, Row span; order among the items
Flex or Grid container	Alignment, Packed / Space between, Spacing between children, Spacing between rows, Column gap, Row gap, padding and its lock, Reverse stacking order, Include borders in items size	Layout type, direction, Wrap children, Column count, Row count, Edit columns and rows, Layout helpers
Nested instance	Component (swap), Variant, State, input rows	Detaching it on its own
Interactions and behaviors	—	The Interactions tab and the Behaviors section are read-only
Structure	Content of a slot	Adding, reordering, moving, grouping, framing, flattening and outlining layers; adding or removing a layout

• The size of a layer inside an instance changes only through its sizing mode, or when the Scale tool scales the instance: the scaled sizes and positions of its layers become overrides.
• A Fill override on a vector layer applies to all of its regions.

On the instance itself:

• Appearance, Clip content, padding, gaps, alignment, size and minimum and maximum size can be changed like on a frame, and each change is an override.
• Position, rotation, Constraints and the place in the Layers panel belong to the instance. They are not overrides, and no reset touches them.
• Locked: layout type, direction, Wrap children, Column count, Row count, Edit columns and rows, Layout helpers and the content tag. A layout can't be removed from an instance.