I have been using DT for a while and I am very happy with just about every aspect of it. I am having a very frustrating time with the combination of parametric masks with drawn masks. I have watched Youtube videos from Bruce Williams, A Dabble in Photography and a few others over and over again. I have also spent hours trying to put inclusive and exclusive masking to work on my own test images. The combination of parametric and drawn masks in this software is simply not intuitive and I cannot seem to master it. I know I am not asking a specific question here but I am looking for some general advice of further information sources to help me wrap my head around this. A different way to think about it. A trick. A method. SOMETHING! I am very frustrated and grabbing for straws! Thanks for the opportunity to vent!
Either look at PlayRaws or share an image in the PlayRaw category. Ask around how to mask xyz.
Did you watch these ones from Boris Hajdukovic? I found them really useful for me.
Can you give us an example with what you are trying to mask and having trouble with…this will be the quickest way to assist you… As for inclusive and exclusive…think of them and and/or operators. THey will work with that logic when you add multiple channels in a parametric mask and between the parametric and drawn mask…
Thank you! I just revised these two. There is a third as well
I understood more this time around than I did the first time. I’m sure it won’t be the last time. So much to learn 
The different operators, and their use in mask manager, is especially covered in this third video.
I should probably sit down and do a proper explanation or document but here are a couple of cheat sheets of a sort that I made when I was trying to understand the interations based on the explanation provided in the manual… I would rarely need to use such set of combinations…usually I can mask what I need with parametric mask and then a drawn mask to restrict the range of that selection defines but there are many possible combinations and the videos shared that were made by Boris cover things pretty well…
Combined Masks Updated.pdf (2.0 MB)
Combined Mask Breakdown.pdf (2.3 MB)
I would need a more specific question to give a useful answer. Posting a sample image in PlayRaw is a good idea. But for me, I have picked DT as my program because of the great parametric and drawn masks. Most of my needs are met without resorting to the inclusive and exclusive options for masking. Maybe, just maybe you are trying to make a simple task more difficult than it needs to be. Again, a PlayRaw example would allow others to demonstrate on images giving you trouble.
I usually use the parametric option to select a portion of the image such as sky based on brightness. I then add a drawn path to this selection to limit the effect to roughly the sky region to avoid selecting bright objects in the foreground. I don’t usually touch the inclusive/exclusive option while doing this.
When I use a parametric mask, if it is not exact (and the videos give good hints to improve that) I may then have to limit the affected area with a drawn mask, or occasionally, exclude areas I don’t want affected.
According to me, this is the basic level of parametric/drawn interaction, and with some familiarity it’s fairly intuitive. I learnt from this round of watching how to use inclusive/exclusive to add a wanted area to the para’ mask with a drawn mask.
I learned incidental stuff too. He uses a final exposure instance to alter the overall brightness: I have been going back to the first instance to do that. But my way then has to go through the pipeline of the other instances, whereas his adjusts the result of them. Even if it ends up looking the same, it makes much more sense to do it his way.