Node Editor basics

The following table lists the basic functionality of the Node Editor at a glance.

To...	Do this
Display connections.	Select a node and click the icon in the toolbar to display the input and output node connections.
Create a node.	Press Tab and enter the type of your node. Alternatively, you can -drag and drop from the Create bar in the Hypershade or the Create Node window.
Copy a node into the Node Editor.	-drag from the Outliner into the Node Editor.
Create a connection using connection lines.	Expand the node to its full mode by clicking . Middle- or left-drag to create connection lines between your output and input attributes.
Create a default node connection.	+ -drag a node onto another in the Node Editor.
Connect nodes using the Connection Editor.	+ -drag a node onto another in the Node Editor.
Connect a default output to a specific input attribute.	-drag a node onto another in the Node Editor.
Delete a connection.	Drag on a connection line and release the mouse in the background area to delete a connection. Or, you can click the connection line(s)/marquee-select, then press Backspace or Delete.
Change an existing connection.	Drag on a connection line to disconnect and then reconnect with a new input/output.
Lock the view.	Click . Any new nodes you create do not appear in the graph. Or, you can disable the Add to Graph on Create option from the Node Editor work area marking menu.
Resize nodes.	You can resize any node in any of the view modes: simple, connected, or full. The resize corner on the bottom right corner of a node denotes that it can be resized.
Pinning a node to the view.	You can pin a node so that it stays within the Node Editor view and retains its position and size even after a regraph. Click to pin and to unpin; or, use the hotkey p to toggle between pinning and unpinning selected nodes. Enable Options > Pin all nodes by default (or enable the option via the work area marking menus) to always pin newly created nodes. You can also pin or unpin multiple nodes in one step via the toolbar icons.
Assign a material.	In the scene view, select the object(s) that you want to assign the material to. Then, in the Node Editor, right-click the material to expose its marking menu and select Assign Material to Viewport Selection. Or, you can -drag a shader or material from the Node Editor onto an object in a model pane.
Graph a node, and add it to the existing network.	Enable Options > Additive Graphing Mode. Select a node and then click one of the , , and icons to add its graph to the existing node network.
When you select a node in the Node Editor, you do not want it to be selected in the scene view and vice versa.	Right-click the work area to expose the marking menu and disable the Sync Node Editor / Viewport Selection option. See Selection in the Node Editor for more information.
Switch off the grid background.	Click to toggle the grid background on and off, or select/deselect the Display > Grid menu option.
Snap to grid.	Click or select Display > Grid Snapping to snap nodes to grid.

Node Editor basics

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