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
|
|
Change view modes for the nodes to display a shorter or longer list of attributes. |
Use the 1, 2, 3, and 4 hotkeys to switch among the different view modes. |
|
Create a node. |
Press Tab and enter the type of your node. Alternatively, you can
|
|
Create a connection using connection lines. |
Expand the node to its full mode by clicking
Click the source and destination ports, or middle- or left-drag to create connection lines between your output and input attributes. |
|
Create a default node connection. |
Ctrl + middle-drag a node onto another in the Node Editor. |
|
Connect nodes using the Connection Editor. |
Shift + middle-drag a node onto another in the Node Editor. |
|
Connect a default output to a specific input attribute. |
middle-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. |
|
Display connections with a different connection line style. |
Select the style you want from the Display > Connection Style menu. |
|
Create or delete a tab |
Click + in the right-most tab to create a tab. Right-click a tab and select Close Tab, or middle-click the tab to delete it. You can also use the Tabs menu. |
|
Tear off a tab into its own window |
Left click or middle-drag the tab off the tab bar. |
|
Graph a node, and add it to the existing network. |
Enable
Options > Additive Graphing Mode. Select a node and then click one of the
|
|
Lock the view. |
Click
Or, you can disable the Add to Graph on Create option from the Node Editor work area marking menu. |
|
Pin 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. Pinned nodes appear with a
|
|
Snap to grid. |
Click
|
|
Switch off the grid background. |
Click
|
|
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. |
icon in the toolbar to display the input and output node connections.
to display the create node pane, then use the mouse to middle-drag and drop the node you want into the work area.
.
,
icons to add its graph to the existing node network.
. Any new nodes you create do not appear in the graph.
icon. Use the hotkey p to toggle between pinning and unpinning selected nodes. Enable
or select
to toggle the grid background on and off, or select/deselect the