Panels reference

What each panel in DNA shows, and where to read more.

Every panel is a view onto the graph. Nothing is made in a panel that does not exist in the graph first. Any panel's tab can be dragged to dock it elsewhere, split a region, or stack it as a tab; see Panels & Layout for how docking works.

Viewing and editing

Node Graph is the canvas where you build. Add nodes, wire them together, group them into subgraphs, and read each node's cook-policy badge for how it updates. → The node graph

Viewport shows the live result, 2D or 3D, in real time. Orbit, pan and zoom, and use the on-canvas tools to draw, place and transform directly. → The viewport · Viewport tools

Parameters and Pinned are two tabs onto the same view: the controls you pinned, plus the hotbar. Neither follows the selection. A node's own controls live on the node body in the graph, where you right-click a widget to keyframe it, drive it with an Expression, or connect it to a signal. → Pin to panel · Parameter widgets

Time, layers and structure

Timeline & Layer Manager combines playback and the scene's layer stack. Scrub and set the play range on the timeline; toggle visibility, lock, solo and bypass, set opacity and blend modes, and drag a row up or down to reorder layers. The list holds every visual node, including the ones a wire turned down to opacity 0 because something downstream consumes them, so a node missing from the viewport is still findable here with its slider at the bottom. → The timeline · Layers & compositing

Data and inspection

Data Viewer lays out any node's output as a spreadsheet: every point and its attributes in resizable columns, with keyboard navigation and an Export CSV button. The table draws the first 1000 rows; the export writes all of them. Columns cannot be sorted. → Attributes

Under that table sits a stack of pinned outputs, a watch window for the outputs you want to keep an eye on while working somewhere else. Right-click an output socket in the graph and pick Pin to Data Viewer to add one. Each pinned slot is a compact card with its own header, its own scroll position and a ✕ to unpin, and the output currently on show above is not repeated. A slot that cannot resolve says why rather than going blank: node deleted, output removed, not yet cooked, or living in a subgraph you are not currently in. Pins are saved beside the project and come back with it.

Viewer is a viewport pinned to one specific node rather than following the selection. Use it to watch an upstream result while working downstream. → Pin to panel

Console is the running log: messages, warnings and errors, colour-coded by severity and stamped with the time since launch. Four severity buttons filter it and carry per-level counts. → Gotchas

Assets, output and tuning

Assets is the library of images, video, audio, 3D models, subgraphs and plugins. Search, filter by category, and drag any asset straight into the graph. Import adds files by reference without copying them, and + Add Folder registers a folder to scan. Scrolling zooms between a compact list and large thumbnails rather than scrolling the list.

Export gathers the export and render-output nodes in one place. The settings themselves live on the nodes. → Exporting

Performance is a live read on speed: a rolling 120-sample frame-time graph with 16.67 ms and 8.33 ms reference lines for 60 and 120 fps, draw and triangle counts, and a memory breakdown you can expand per category. Per-node cook cost is not here; it is a chip in the Data Viewer. → The performance panel

See also

• Panels & Layout

• Pop-out windows

• The interface at a glance

• Pin to panel