Recently, our design manager announced that we were moving from Sketch to Figma. Yay! How sweet! At the same time we moved, we started using a tool called Magicul. This tool will regularly back up all Figma designs into Sketch format.

Is that really necessary? Don’t you know Figma has version management? A:

  • Figma is a locked-in ecology.

  • Figma technically only has version history, not version management.

Before this, we used Abstract as a backup when we used Sketch. Now that the company has continued this policy, we still need to back up our design files outside of Figma, as we already do for our code base and regular database for multi-platform backup, just to avoid being locked into one product.

There are two tools for backing up Figma files

Magicul

FigPickle

Note: FigPickle can only back up designs as SVG and PNG files — Magicul is the only option for a true Figma backup.

Magicul can automatically backup daily, weekly, and hourly. This is a demo I found while testing the software.

Magicul supports separate versions and backups in our AWS S3 storage cloud. Most importantly, Magicul allows us to make backups directly from Figma as Sketch files.

We keep copies of Sketch, XD and Figma at the same time

  • We design in Figma
  • Figma’s built-in backup tool takes a snapshot of our version history and saves it as a.fig file
  • . FIG files are copied and converted to Sketch files
  • Both files are saved to our S3 storage cloud
  • It goes round and round, forming a closed loop

We already store a lot of data in S3 as a company, so we thought it would be a good idea to use it directly as our core storage path. That way, our design files are all backed up in the same place.

Why did we choose to convert our Fig files to Sketch?

FIG is a proprietary binary with no public documentation support

Sure, Figma should do well in the next few years, but who knows what new tools will be popular in the design market longer term?

So we need to be flexible, so that we can always choose to move somewhere else and make the best of it.

2. All design software on the market, both existing and coming, will support opening Sketch files

  • The Sketch file is in JSON format

  • Such files are open, readable, and universal

  • InVision, Figma, XD and even a Web-side editor (similar to Mockplus RP) can open and edit Sketch files (Figma also has Sketch import)

3. Document management specifications should be complied with

Our company has a clear document management policy, which includes:

  • Files should be stored in as few places as possible
  • All design documents should be due at least 4 years
  • Avoid being locked into a single ecosystem

Our database, code base, and now Figma files are regularly backed up to S3 storage cloud servers. To ensure that all valuable business assets are on the systems we control, to ensure security and to meet the needs of the audit.

4. Backup can also relieve the problem of cloud service outages and its unavailability during regular maintenance. It is expensive to keep our design team idle.

Another benefit of backing up our Figma files is that if the Figma is interrupted for maintenance or some other form, we can continue editing using the historical version without accompanying Figma etc. So we made it a habit to automatically take a version snapshot every six hours.

This also required some simple coordination, like when Figma came back online, we needed to manually merge our files. But it’s better than waiting, and the whole workflow stall doesn’t happen.

Original link: uxplanet.org/why-we-back…

This article is translated by Copyar team. Copyar supports whole-process collaboration, high-fidelity prototype design, automatic annotation and cutting, and supports Sketch/PS/XD/Figma/Axure design draft delivery.