Content Creation / model workflow

Model workflow authoring

Category: Content Creation. Status: Normative.

The model workflow is a directed graph. Nodes describe content or behavior; edges establish hierarchy and evaluation context. The canvas supports adding nodes, connecting compatible relationships, editing properties, arranging branches, searching, filtering, undo/redo, subflows, preview, and publishing.

Recommended structure

Product settings
└─ Option set: Base
   ├─ Option: Standard
   │  ├─ Mesh / Mesh group
   │  └─ Material set
   └─ Option: Premium
      ├─ Mesh / Transform / Pattern
      └─ Material set

Use one Product settings node. Create an Option set for a customer decision and an Option for each value. Attach only the geometry, materials, rules, or annotations controlled by that choice.

Node palette

Group	Nodes	Purpose
Workflow	Product settings	Product label, environment, ground plane, root behavior
Structure	Option set, Option	Customer-facing configuration hierarchy
Geometry	Mesh, Mesh group, Transform, Pattern, Replicator, Animation, Mesh annotation	Geometry membership and behavior
Materials	Material, Color, Material set, Mesh materials, Material library, Material search, Material filter, Texture mapping	Surface selection and assignment
Logic	Configuration rules, Rule value	Ordered external signature mapping
Scene	Environment, Camera, AI spawn	Scene defaults and controlled generation
Annotations	Text writer, Workflow note, Metadata, HTML writer	Authoring notes and presentation metadata

The current safe limit is 500 nodes and 1,500 edges per workflow snapshot. A node position must remain within the bounded canvas.

Options and defaults

Give each option set a clear configurator label.
Use weight/order consistently; do not rely on canvas position as selection order.
Mark internal or unavailable choices hidden rather than deleting historical nodes without review.
Ensure every option group has a valid default path.
Keep one responsibility per option set. Combining unrelated choices makes signatures and downstream UI difficult to reason about.

Geometry

Mesh nodes reference verified mesh identities. Mesh groups collect related geometry. Transform, Pattern, and Replicator nodes modify a referenced geometry context; they do not authorize arbitrary asset paths.

Check:

referenced mesh IDs exist in the card's active assets;
intended root geometry is marked consistently;
visibility does not depend on contradictory branches;
transforms use the expected coordinate system and units;
pattern and replication counts stay within usable product bounds;
animation targets and triggers refer to valid mesh IDs.

Signatures and rules

A Configuration rules node represents a signature/template, and ordered Rule value entries represent its key/value parts. Reordering changes the one-based index. Keep keys and values stable once external consumers use them.

Test a signature through the model preview and the published runtime resolver. A matching authoring label is not proof that the external signature resolves correctly.

Subflows and layout

Subflows visually group a branch without changing security or asset ownership. Use them for large option branches and choose tree/column layout and spacing for readability. Auto-arrange is a presentation aid; verify the graph relationships after arranging.

Editing and recovery

Workflow saves produce versioned snapshots. Undo/redo concerns the current authoring session; it is not a substitute for a saved archive. If an imported production graph contains stale edges, Vertcie may omit only those unrenderable edges while preserving the source archive.

Before publishing, search for missing references, inspect hidden nodes, expand collapsed branches, and preview more than the default path.