Order of operations

I would like to know the order of operations within Resolve.
Within a node, there are many adjustments possible (primaries, log grade, all the types of curves, blur, etc.), and the order of these things can make a difference. When in doubt, I can add another node, but sometimes it's easier to do 2 things in one node. The only thing mentioned in the manual is that node LUTs are applied last. I'm guessing all other operations happen in parallel, but I'd like to know for sure.

Also, camera raw settings. Are they always applied first, before any nodes, even OLPF compensation and detail?

And track grades... are they applied before or after clip grades? I assume after, but the manual doesn't say.

These are good questions. Lets hope someone from BM has an answer on Monday.

Order of operations is very important as certain operations cause clipping (loss of info) before the next operation is applied. This vid explains quite well...

Resolve Tips: Accidental Clipping in DaVinci



Jules

Nice video link.
However the video is not quite right. In the first example with luts, Luts do not have to clip. The reason the lut in the video clips is that it does not define any of the areas that are above 1 or less than 0.
The clipping is not resolves fault, it is the design of the lut.

Resolve will accept luts that have values that scale above 1.0 and are less then 0.0. This is important when it comes to using luts as the first step in a color correction, as the video author notes.

Within a node, there are many adjustments possible (primaries, log grade, all the types of curves, blur, etc.), and the order of these things can make a difference. When in doubt, I can add another node, but sometimes it's easier to do 2 things in one node. The only thing mentioned in the manual is that node LUTs are applied last. I'm guessing all other operations happen in parallel, but I'd like to know for sure.

I think it's a mistake to try to do too much within one Node. The main reason is, you can get lost very quickly in a complex correction -- say, with 6 or more simultaneous nodes. (And I've had rare situations with 15-20 nodes within a lot of cuts, but I'd say 3 or 4 modes is a more normal average.)

I think using the first node for an overall correction is reasonable, then secondaries in the next node, windows & keys in the one after that, and so on, works pretty well. If you have to use a parallel / layer / mix node, you'd generally attach that to the first node. If I had to do a reposition, I'd generally do that in the last node. Opinions differ on whether to use project LUTs or node LUTs and where to position them.

Warren Eagles and Alexis Von Hurkmann have very good strategies on how and why to use specific node structures in their respective tutorials, and I tend to agree with most of what they say. One important point is that if somebody else winds up working on the project, they need to understand your basic node structure; by the same token, if the project ends, then somehow comes back 6 months later for fixes, you might find yourself at a loss to remember exactly what you did within each node. If each step is broken down in one adjustment per node, it's a lot easier to figure out what went on so you can trim what needs to be fixed.

All good points, Marc, but still, this should be documented by BMD.
Sometimes I wish I could have a "node group" because I want to quickly toggle an effect on/off. If it's a complicated effect, it might be 2-3 nodes, so it's impossible to A/B the difference visually. So this is sometimes my motivation to cram multiple things into one node.

Group nodes would be great! As would be the ability to lasso over multiple nodes and delete them. Further it would be great to be able to hit delete node and have the deleting work in descending order. It really doesn't make life any easier that it just jumps to the last node after hitting delete. Hopefully some version of this will come at some point.