Generating an Xcode project or native iOS app directly from an XD design is unlikely to ever be a feature in XD, because in a sense it's asking for the impossible. The designs you make in XD aren't fully functioning apps -- they're just mockups. 99% of the time, you're going to need behavior that an XD mockup can't express, whether it's working input fields, backend integration, persistent state, or just true native screen transitions. Someone needs to write code to implement all those details of how a full app behaves.
You might wonder then, why doesn't XD generate a "starter" Xcode project where you can then add whatever extra code you need? One reason is there are a ton of different deployment options: iOS using Swift, iOS using Objective C, Android using Java, web using React, web using Angular 1, web using Angular 2, etc. etc. We can't possibly support them all, and a year from now there will be a whole bunch more new technologies anyway.
Another reason is that, for many reasons, it's nearly impossible based on freeform visual designs to auto-generate code that's clean enough to be useful to a developer. Nine times out of 10, a serious developer would hold their nose and wade through the auto-generated code just long enough to pull out all the assets they need, then rebuild everything themself. Rather than generate code no one wants, our focus is for XD to get developers just the assets they need, letting them focus on writing clean code using any technology they choose.
Next month, you'll see us take a big step forward in that developer story with the first piece of our "publish specs" workflow, where developers can view your designs online and pull out all the styles and measurements they need.
Hope that explanation helps!
- Peter
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