The Light Manager Interface

Overview UI List Collection Properties Light Properties World Properties

The Light Manager acts as the central command center of Scene Light Manager. It consolidates all active lights, mesh emitters, blockers, and world environments in your scene into a single, unified list. From here, you can drive values, control visibility, lock exposure metrics, and configure light groups without diving into the Outliner or property panels.

1. Main Mode Switcher

At the top of the Scene Light Manager panel, you can toggle between two core management modes:

Mode Icon Description
Light Manager LIGHT Standard list mode for managing your lights, environment (World), collection hierarchies, helper objects, and direct properties.
Link Manager LINK_BLEND Dedicated overview panel to manage relationship overrides: Light Groups (LG), Light Linking (LL), and Shadow Linking (SL) at a global level.

2. Toolbar Row 1: Visibility & Filters

Just below the mode switcher, you'll find visibility controls and a quick-filter system to isolate specific assets:

Visibility Mode Selection

Toggle whether visibility changes affect the global scene settings (GLOBAL) or are limited to the active view layer (VIEW_LAYER).

Global Mode Header
Global Mode List Header
View Layer Mode Header
View Layer Mode List Header
FILTER Filter Toggle (FILTER)

Opens/closes the advanced search and filtering foldout panel to quickly refine active list components.

FILTER Advanced Filters Foldout

When the filter panel is toggled open, the following options are available:

Advanced Filters Foldout
Advanced filters and search foldout panel
VIEWZOOM Search Bar

Search and filter elements in the list by name. Clear the search instantly with the X button.

Type Filter

Filter items by their light category (Point, Sun, Spot, Area, Bouncer, Blocker, Mesh Light, Catcher, HDRI Sphere).

OUTLINER Flat List

Flatten the collection hierarchy. Shows all objects as a single list, hiding parent collection folders.

Relationship Dropdowns

Filter elements based on whether they belong to a specific Light Group (LG), Light Linking collection (LL), or Shadow Linking collection (SL).

3. Toolbar Row 2: Creation & Rigs

This row contains the creation tools, parametric rigs, and deletion operators.

ADD The Add Menu (+ Add...)

Allows spawning custom lights, calibrated rigs, and special studio tools directly at the 3D cursor:

Main Add Menu
Main Add Menu in Sidebar
Quick Add Menu Popover
Quick Add Menu Popover
COLLECTION_NEW Set Creation

Creates a new pre-structured light group collection containing default area and point light configurations.

LIGHT Standard Lights
  • LIGHT_POINT Point Light — Omni
  • LIGHT_POINT IES Light — Calibrated
  • LIGHT_SUN Sun Light — Parallel
  • LIGHT_SPOT Spot Light — Conical
  • LIGHT_AREA Area Light — Surface
LIGHT_DATA Special Lights
  • LIGHT_SUN Realistic Sun: Geo-coordinated sun/sky cycle.
  • LIGHT_SUN Aligned Sun: Sun tracking via HDRI mapping.
WORLD Helper Objects
  • icon_bouncer Bouncer — Reflector card
  • icon_blocker Blocker — Dark black flag
  • icon_meshlight Mesh Light — Emissive plane
  • MOD_DYNAMICPAINT Catcher — Shadow catcher
  • WORLD HDRI Sphere — Preview sphere

LIGHT_DATA The Presets Menu (Presets...)

Spawns parametric studio lighting setups pre-parented to controller empties with unified controls:

Presets Menu
Parametric Presets Dropdown Menu
LIGHT
3-Point Light Setup Classic Key, Fill, and Rim/Back studio rig.
LIGHT
Studio Duo (Product) Two-point product studio layout.
COLOR
Warm-Cool Split (Cinematic) Cinematic warm-cool split key-fill setup.
SHADING_RENDERED
Dramatic Rim (Silhouette) High-contrast rim lighting setup.
USER
Butterfly Glamour (Portrait) Glamour/portrait beauty rig.
LIGHT_DATA
Double Sun (Atmospheric) Dual-sun atmospheric setup.
REMOVE
Delete Operator (REMOVE)

Instantly removes the selected light object, helper object, or entire active collection hierarchies.

4. Right Sidebar Actions (UI List Column)

To the right of the main UI list is a vertical toolbar containing quick actions:

Action Icon Description
Expand Tree icon_expand Recursively expands all collection levels in the list.
Collapse Tree icon_collapse Recursively collapses all collection levels in the list.
Select Previous TRIA_UP Selects the previous light or collection in the list index stack.
Select Next TRIA_DOWN Selects the next light or collection in the list index stack.
Pin Collection PINNED Pins the selected collection so its visibility is locked against global modifications.
Unpin Collection UNPINNED Unpins the selected collection.
Solo / Isolate Mode STICKY_UVS_LOC / STICKY_UVS_DISABLE Turns off all other light sources to isolate the selected emitter/collection. Turns red (alert mode) when active.
Options Popover PREFERENCES Opens the List Display Options popover panel.

5. List Display Options Popover

Clicking the Gear icon ( PREFERENCES ) opens a settings panel divided into two sections:

List Display Options Popover
List Display & Sync Options Popover Panel
OUTLINER A. List Display
  • Expand All Light Details: Forces all lights to display their target, power, and color sliders inline.
  • Auto Expand Active Light: Only shows inline sliders for the currently selected light.
  • Show World in List: Toggles the visibility of the top-level World row.
  • Outliner Columns: Show/hide columns (Select, Viewport, Render, Exposure, L. Group, L. Link, S. Link, Targets, V. Layer).
FILE_REFRESH B. Synchronization
  • Auto Local Transform: Toggles transform orientation to Local space upon selection.
  • Sync Selection: Synchronizes viewport selection with the list, and vice versa.
  • Sync Collection Selection: Selects all lights in viewport when their collection is selected.
  • Sync Visibility Drivers: Syncs viewport visibility drivers when visibility properties change.
  • Show Selected in Camera Render: Overrides render visibility for camera test renders.