Add collection members by node type using Collection Filters

Use the Collection Filters functionality to add only shapes, shaders, sets, and so forth to your collection. You can also create a custom filter to add specific node types that you are interested in.

By default, your collection includes only transform nodes, which determine the objects that you see in the viewport when a layer is visible.

For advanced users, however, you may want to include other types of nodes in your collection. For example, you may want to include only shaders, or sets, or shading engines. This allows you to create an override on only a specific type of node.

One example would be to create a collection with only shading engines to which you can apply a shader override. Another example would be to create a collection of sets to override their attributes.

Click the Collection Filters drop-down list in the Property Editor to select among the available filters.

You can then populate your collection by doing any of the following:

• providing an expression in the Include field in the collection Property Editor,
• selecting nodes from the viewport or Outliner and clicking Add in the collection Property Editor,
• a combination of both.

See Create a collection for your render layer.

After you have selected a filter and added your nodes or expression, you can verify your layer membership by clicking View All in the Property Editor. The View Collection Objects window appears with a list of your collection members.

Note:

• Use of the All collection filter is only recommended for advanced users. In addition, it may impact performance.
• The Geometry Generators filter includes history nodes such as makeNurbCone and polySphere. This filter was previously named Geometry and NURBS.

Use a custom filter to add specific node types

If the Collection Filters provided are too generic for your purpose, you can streamline your collection even further by using the Custom filter to include only specific node types of your choice. Select Custom from the drop-down menu and add node types to the Property Editor Collection Filters Types attribute. To add node types, middle-mouse drag and drop a node from the Outliner to the Property Editor, and its node type is automatically recognized. Plug-in node types are recognized.

Tip: In addition to dragging and dropping, you can also manually type in the names of the node types; for example, blinn.

In the following example, the char*_skin expression is used to include all the character skin shaders in the collection. Now when you middle-mouse drag char1_skin to the Property Editor Types attribute, the blinn type is recognized. Likewise, when you middle-mouse drag char2_skin to the Property Editor, the aiStandardSurface type is recognized. Click Select All to verify the membership.

Tip: You can also verify the members of your collection by clicking View All in the Property Editor to display a list of the collection members.

Use a classification string to add a node type

Enter a classification string such as texture/2d in the Types field to add file nodes, or 2d texture nodes such as Checker. Other options include the classification string utility to add bump2d or place2dtexture nodes. This field is case sensitive; in other words, Texture/2d will not return any results.

The Nodes documentation for each node provides information on its classification string. See the Nodes section of the Technical Documentation in the Maya Help for more information.

Subtract collection members by node type

You can exclude node types with a -. For example, the following includes all surface shaders except for shaders of type blinn:

shader/surface -blinn

You can also exclude by classification string. This example includes all utility nodes except for those classified by utility/general/placement/2d (such as place2dTexture nodes):

utility -utility/general/placement/2d