Android Studio 3.1 layout preview does not show preview for some layouts

In my case, I did build and then clicked Force Refresh Layout started showing preview

Try whether this solves your issue,

For Android Studio 3.1 Gradle version, with plugin version 28.0.0, add implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0-alpha1' instead of implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0-rc01'.

After many failed attempts and submitting it to Android Studio bug tracker and giving it an another try. I found that it was due to a missing "+".

Sample layout to demonstrate the issue

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/rightTextView"
        style="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat.Medium"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="24dp"
        android:padding="12dp"
        android:text="This is a sample TextView at Right"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="@+id/leftTextView" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@id/leftTextView"
        style="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:padding="12dp"
        android:text="Left"
        android:textColor="@color/colorAccent" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

The issue was because of a missing + in leftTextView id declaration. After changing the line (line no. 18)

android:id="@id/leftTextView"

to

android:id="@+id/leftTextView"

Android Studio layout preview panel started displaying the layout.

Note : I always used to declare view ids (i.e., "@+id") only once in a layout file at its first occurrence(either declaration or reference) and there was no issue with layout preview or running the App till now