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. |
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 to display the create node pane, then use the mouse to middle-drag and drop the node you want into the work area. |
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 , , and icons to add its graph to the existing node network. |
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. |
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 icon. 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. |
Snap to grid. |
Click or select Display > Grid Snapping to snap nodes to grid. |
Switch off the grid background. |
Click to toggle the grid background on and off, or select/deselect the Display > Grid menu option. |
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. |