Auto arrange works great when there’s a single plate. However when I have multiple plates I usually don’t want auto arrange to mix and match objects between plates.
There should be an option to auto arrange within 1 plate vs all objects. Arranging within the current selected plate should be the default.
On Mac you do that by selecting the plate so it is highlighted then press shift+A. Try hovering over the auto-arrange button and it should give you the options for your OS.
Click the autoarrange icon next to the plate in the 3D view to only arrange the items on that plate.
I think the OP was suggesting auto-arrange ALL PARTS that are on ALL PLATES at once.
I’d like to see this for the example of having a single color/material print job that has 3-4 plates full of parts. hitting AUTO ARRANGE ALL would take parts from other plates if needed to best fit everything minimizing the total number of plates needed. like if a part from plate 3 would fit on plate 1 it would auto-magically movie it, etc.
Auto-arrange on the top tool bar, key “A”, already arranges all parts on all (unlocked) plates. It will also move parts to a different unlocked plate and reduce the number of plates if that is possible. Lock any plates you do not wish to be involved in the re-arrangement.
But the OP wanted arrangement of just ONE plate.
OP did not realize that “Shift+A” is available to auto-arrange only the currently selected plate, the same as clicking the auto-arrange icon next to a plate. Or that locking all except the one plate would restrict changes to that one plate.