node lists and canvases are very clunky to use

eyet33th

i really like the idea of canvases for separate render passes, but the way they are implemented from a UI perspective seems very clunky. each canvas is linked to a node list, but each canvas can only have a single node list. this makes it difficult to sensibly organize canvases. for instance, i would like to have a "foreground" canvas and a "background" canvas, and swap nodes to each canvas depending on where the camera is. if i could attach multiple node lists to one canvas, i could create a node list for "House A" and "House B" and "House C" that each includes all objects and scenery near each house. so if my camera is at House A, i can put the House A node list in the Foreground and House B & C in the Background. 

another issue is that node lists themselves are difficult to manage due to limited options. if i put sixteen objects in Node List A, and then realize I missed ten more objects, in order to add all 26 objects to the node list i have to go back and re-select all of the original sixteen objects. i can't just select the ten new objects and add them, unless i do it manually in the node list itself. and THAT is difficult because i can't see in the viewport what i'm selecting. there should be an option to "add/remove checked items to node list". and similarly there should be options to enable creating selections in the scene from a node list.

a third issue is that canvases and node lists are tied to render settings. so if i spend a lot of time creating a bunch of canvases for a complicated render, i can't load any render setting presets or even many lighting presets (because the HDRI dome is part of render settings). if you use "merge into scene" with a render setting/lighting preset, it shouldn't destroy your canvases and nodes.

 

i am very new to DS and i am still learning, so maybe some or all of these issues have a solution that i don't know about. if so please let me know!

Richard Haseltine

Check the changel log, theer has been some work on CanvassesL http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/change_log#private_channel You may want to make feature requests for things like adding a way to load the canvas settings separately from other Render Settings, or vice versa https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-contact-us

Rakete

On the latest 4.15, these complaints still seem to be true. Is there a way to have render settings save the list of nodes of a canvas maybe? Because currently as soon as you load saved render settings, the node list of all canvases is cleared. That makes it very difficult to work with canvases and forces me to save my render settings on a piece of paper instead of just saving them.