So my idea was to duplicate one half of a screen to the other half. Creating a picture on the left side would automatically generate a copy on the right hand side too.
http://pxegeek.home.comcast.net/synfig/exportedcanvases.sifz
Open this file, then highlight the rectangle in the lowest layer in the layer dialog, then try creating a circle on the left hand side of the canvas. Studio crashes for me. I am able to create a circle at the top level i.e. above both encapsulated canvases (but where’s the fun in that?)
That’s an old one:
sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph … tid=757416
workaround: open the exported canvas in its own window.
Very annoying 
-G
I’ve stopped the crash - it pops up an error instead now. (svn r2201)
Another workaround: create an encapsulation layer inside the exported canvas (by working in the exported canvas’ own window or by copy-pasting it in there). Then you can draw directly inside that encapsulation from the root canvas. This is probably a bug within the other bug…
Thanks dooglus! Warning error (and no crash) confirmed.
Chris
its very clever, pixelgeek and dooglus’s solution does indeed work…hope u get it working soon though in the conventional manner 
its very nice 