Hi everyone !
Canvas is a wonderful core pluggin but it indeed might be improved by adding a few more customization options.
Context (TL;DR)
I need to add a bit more context to explicit my statements because I haven’t found a lot of other Obsidian users in the same field/having the same needs than me.
I use obsidian for professional purposes. I am working in a small R&D lab in chemistry industry (scientific field). I was having a hard time following the dozens of ideas and project being constantly started and all links between them, but also to keep track of acquired knowledge and experience.
Here comes Obsidian ! With a few pluggins it became an all-in-one tool (project tracker, task and topic distribution for the entire team, knowledge-wiki). It is a wonderful tool, congrats to the dev team !
I started using it about 2 weeks before Canvas’ release. It was the last piece missing for a nice project managements. Graphic view is a nice feature to visualize the entire vault, but it lacks details and flexibility. For that use but also project overview and update, Canvas in incredible.
However, it misses a bit of customization to be fully versatile. For example, I use differents templates of notes :
- Project kick-off
- Result summary
- Discussions and bibliography
- Meetings
- RH
- Feedback
The current version of canvas misses to customization to visualy distinguish all types of notes ant there current state (planned, stand-by, started, published, completed), so my suggestion is to propose more options into Canvas.
To illustrate my statement, enclosed is a capture of my main project’s Canvas.
Feature request
- Several cards format (square, round, diamond…)
- Several group format (same than previously, grouping groups to have unsual format, background fillings…)
- Several arrows types between cards (dotted lines, thickness adjustable, possibility to change the curve of the lines…)
- Automatic rearrangement to minimize arrow distance/arrow crossing
Digression (openings not directly related to the subject)
Automatic Canvas creation based on a specific note and it links (in and out) or common tags/folder as the local graphic could be awesome.
In interaction with Dataview for group/color/square updates depending on metadatas, it could be incredibly powerful.
There is a lot of other ideas that could be implemented to improve Obsidian’s use in scientific fields, I really think with time it can become a widely use software in laboratories !
Canvas core pluggin, Obsidian and it’s community are incredible tools, thank you devs and everyone participating in its development !
PS : I am not used to forums, sorry if I am not on the right topic or if something is missing.
