Hi Joe,
The canvas and layers default to having their Z-fill set to the bottom, and then layer blend modes default to Maximum. This makes it easy to fill up the canvas with content for relief/emboss style carving projects. For V-carvings and engravings things need to be reversed, Z-Fills raised to the top of the canvas/layers, the layers inverted, and blend mode set to minimum. I've been thinking about how to make it easier to get from one project style to the other without requiring the user to do so many steps. Maybe when they click "New Project" from the File menu it prompts the user what style project they want to make to establish what the defaults for the canvas and layers should be. It's something I'm still weighing options about.
Keep me posted!
- Charlie