Design Render Quality

Control the level of detail in Kanvas design rendering using advanced URL query parameters.

Categories:

By default, Kanvas opens a design in Full render mode. Full already draws TagSets, badges, and animations. You do not add render=full to reveal them. Add a render value only when you want the canvas to draw less.

To learn more about defining relationships between components, including the detailed use and creation of TagSets, please see the Creating Relationships | Layer5 Documentation.

Enable Full Render Mode 🔗

Full is already the mode a link uses when it has no render parameter. A link such as https://kanvas.new/extension/meshmap?mode=design&design=xxxx opens in Full.

TagSets can still be hidden when the mode is not Full, when the TagSets layer is off, or when the design draws more than 30 of them. In that last case Kanvas skips the rest and shows “Skipped rendering of N matchlabels relationships due to limit of 30”. See Render Modes and Performance Limits and Tuning.

Advanced Usage Note

This is an advanced feature primarily intended for power users, debugging scenarios, or system-level integrations. You will not need to manually adjust this parameter for everyday design work.

Why Use Full Render Mode? 🔗

This capability is particularly valuable for:

Detailed Inspection & Debugging: When you need to meticulously review, debug, or verify all components, relationships, and intricate details within a design.
Comprehensive Documentation: For creating thorough screenshots or technical documentation that requires all visual elements to be accurately represented.
System & Integration Testing: During testing phases to ensure all parts of a design are processed and displayed by the rendering engine exactly as expected.

Best Practices 🔗

To use full render mode effectively:

Use Selectively for Performance
Full is the default and draws the most. On a large design, set render=medium or render=wireframe, or turn on Adaptive mode, so the canvas draws less.
Promote Consistent Shared Views
When sharing a design link with render=full for review, advise collaborators to also enable the relevant toggles in their Layers panel. This helps prevent discrepancies caused by individual layer settings, ensuring everyone sees the same details.
Check the Layers Panel if Details Are Missing
If render=full is active in your URL but expected elements (like TagSets) are not visible, verify that their visibility is enabled in your Layers panel. Your Layers settings can hide elements even when full render is requested.

Additional Render Mode Parameters 🔗

You can specify render modes via the render parameter:

render=full – Full rendering with all details. This is the default when the parameter is omitted.
render=medium – Style-only rendering without TagSets and most badges
render=wireframe – Outline-only rendering
render=view-only – Non-interactive view. Spell it with a hyphen. Kanvas does not validate the value, and any other spelling, including viewOnly, is unsupported.

For example: https://kanvas.new/extension/meshmap?render=wireframe&mode=design&design=xxxx

See Render Modes for detailed descriptions of each mode.

Adaptive Mode Parameter 🔗

You can enable Adaptive mode via URL parameter:

https://kanvas.new/extension/meshmap?adaptive=true&mode=design&design=xxxx

When adaptive=true is set, Kanvas monitors how long the canvas takes to produce the next frame after a pan or zoom and switches modes as needed. A link cannot set the ceiling: adaptive=true always starts with a Full ceiling, and render only sets the starting mode. Choose a different ceiling in the render mode switcher after the canvas loads. Adaptive is off unless the link or the switcher turns it on. See Render Modes for details.

render=view-only locks components for that session. It does not change who may edit the design. Anyone with edit access can switch the mode back.

Other parameters Kanvas reads 🔗

Append parameters to the Kanvas route. On the hosted app that route is https://kanvas.new/extension/meshmap. On the Meshery Playground or a self-hosted Meshery it is /extension/meshmap on that host.

Parameters	Result
`mode=design&design=<design-id>`	Opens the design in Designer. This is the form the Share dialog produces. `name=<design-name>` is optional.
`mode=design&type=design&id=<design-id>&name=<design-name>`	Older form that Kanvas still accepts.
`mode=design&type=catalog&id=<catalog-id>&name=<name>`	Clones the catalog design into the opener’s workspace and opens the copy.
`catalog-design=<catalog-id>`	Opens the catalog dialog focused on that design.
`mode=operator`	Opens Operator.
`mode=operator&type=view&id=<view-id>&name=<view-name>`	Opens Operator on a saved view.
`mode=operator&type=view&design_id=<design-id>&design_name=<design-name>`	Opens Operator on a view scoped to a design.
`viewport=<encoded>`	Restores the zoom and pan Copy Link recorded. Copy the value from a link rather than writing it by hand.

A link to a private design opens only for people who can read it. For anyone else the load fails with “Failed to render design”, followed by the reason. Public designs open for anonymous visitors. Render mode and adaptive stay in the address when Kanvas rewrites it, and neither is saved in the design.