Have a single view controller that operates for both an iPhone storyboard and an iPad storyboard. The view controller scenes for each include a UIView subclass with writeable properties necessary to create a special view.
I can successfully set the properties for the subclass in the view controllers viewDidLoad for the iPhone but the properties are not successfully set for the iPad and the subclass obviously does not perform as designed. Included below are abstracted console listings (for simulators) that show the iPhone the subclass is inited with coder slightly before the viewDidLoad for both devices, so I would think I was safe. When I test the subclass without the rest of the app, it works for both devices in the simulators.
So, again (because I think I used to know this), when can you reliably set properties for storyboard objects within a scene?
iPhone 8 (setting subclass properties works in viewDidLoad)
2017-11-07 14:05:53.191484 initWithCoder: (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:05:53.191915 setUpView (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:05:53.221606 [MC] Lazy loading NSBundle MobileCoreServices.framework
2017-11-07 14:05:53.222767 [MC] Loaded MobileCoreServices.framework
2017-11-07 14:05:53.304210 viewDidLoad (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:05:54.104553 viewWillAppear: (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:05:54.124889 viewWillLayoutSubviews (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:05:54.128485 layoutSubviews (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:05:54.128630 layoutSubviews (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:05:54.129017 viewWillLayoutSubviews (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:05:54.144486 drawRect: (UIView subclass)
iPad Air 2 (setting subclass properties does NOT work in viewDidLoad)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.184502 [MC] Lazy loading NSBundle MobileCoreServices.framework
2017-11-07 14:09:14.185708 [MC] Loaded MobileCoreServices.framework
2017-11-07 14:09:14.218208 initWithCoder: (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.218519 setUpView (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.229662 viewDidLoad (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.410150 viewWillAppear: (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.419288 viewWillLayoutSubviews (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.423142 layoutSubviews (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.423248 layoutSubviews (UIView subclass)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.423658 viewWillLayoutSubviews (Main View Controller)
2017-11-07 14:09:14.441233 drawRect: (UIView subclass)