user: Give a detailed overview of Collections Tab: syntax, arguments, return values, common patterns.

assistant: Collection properties tab allows convenient access to properties for the active collection.

[image reference removed]

Collection properties.

### Visibility

Selectable
:   Toggles the ability to select the objects of this collection in the 3D Viewport.

    This is useful for if you have placed something in the scene and
    do not want to accidentally select it when working on something else for example references images.

Show In – Renders
:   Enables/disables visibility of the collection in renders.

#### View Layer

Each collection in a scene can be configured per [View Layer](../../render/layers/index.xhtml)
to control how its contents appear in the render.
These settings allow for flexible render setups by including or excluding specific collections,
masking objects, or limiting their contribution to indirect effects.

Include
:   Includes this collection in the active View Layer.
    When disabled, all objects in the collection will be excluded from the render, the 3D Viewport, and the Outliner
    for the current view layer.

    This is useful for rendering alternate versions of a scene or isolating elements for compositing.

Holdout
:   Marks all objects in this collection as holdouts in the active view layer.

    Holdouts render as transparent regions in the final image, effectively masking out anything behind them. This is
    typically used in compositing workflows to create cutouts or to separate foreground and background elements.

Indirect Only Cycles Only
:   Objects in this collection will not appear directly in the rendered image,
    but they will still contribute indirectly through lighting, shadows, and reflections.

    This is useful for rendering clean product shots while preserving realistic environmental lighting or reflections.

### Instancing

Instance Offset X, Y Z
:   Applies a spatial offset of the instanced collections from the original object’s origin.

### Exporters

Each collection can be exported to a number of various file formats.
These exporters are available globally, see [Importing & Exporting Files](../../files/import_export/index.xhtml),
however, this panel streamlines the process of re-exporting the same asset(s) repeatedly.
For example when creating glTF assets for a game and iterating on the look,
or when using Blender in a studio pipeline to create USD assets.

The following file formats are supported, see each for the documentation of export parameters:

- [Alembic](../../files/import_export/alembic.xhtml)
- [Universal Scene Description](../../files/import_export/usd.xhtml)
- [Wavefront OBJ](../../files/import_export/obj.xhtml)
- [Stanford PLY](../../files/import_export/ply.xhtml)
- [FBX](../../addons/import_export/scene_fbx.xhtml)
- [glTF 2.0](../../addons/import_export/scene_gltf2.xhtml)

Exporter List
:   A [list view](../../interface/controls/templates/list_view.xhtml#ui-list-view) of all the enabled exporters for the active collection.
    The selecting an exporter from the list will show it’s options in a sub panel below.

(Add Exporter)
:   Opens a menu to choose an exporter to add.

(Remove Exporter)
:   Removes the selected exporter.

Export All
:   Exports all exports for the active collection.

### Line Art

Usage
:   How the collection is loaded into Line Art.
    Child objects of the collection can override this setting
    if they wish in [Object Properties](../object/properties/line_art.xhtml#bpy-types-objectlineart-usage).

    Include:
    :   Generate feature lines for this collection.

    Occlusion Only:
    :   Objects in the collection will only cause occlusion to existing feature lines
        and their geometry stay invisible.

    Exclude:
    :   Objects in this collection will not be loaded into Line Art at all.

    Intersection Only:
    :   Objects in the collection will only produce intersection lines in
        the scene and their own geometry stay invisible.

    No Intersection:
    :   Include this collection but do not generate intersection lines.

    Force Intersection:
    :   Generate intersection lines even with objects that disabled intersection.

Collection Mask
:   Use custom intersection mask for faces in this collection.
    Intersection masks can be used by the Line Art modifier to filter lines.
    See [Collection Masks](../../grease_pencil/modifiers/generate/line_art.xhtml#bpy-types-greasepencillineartmodifier-use-intersection-mask) for more information.

Mask
:   Intersections generated by this collection will have this mask value.

Intersection Priority
:   Assigns an intersection priority value for this collection.
    The intersection line will be included into the object with the higher intersection priority value.

### Custom Properties

Create and manage your own properties to store data in the collection’s data block.
See the [Custom Properties](../../files/custom_properties.xhtml#files-data-blocks-custom-properties) page for more information.