Editing Nodes

Transform

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Move, Rotate, Resize

Shortcut:

G, R, S

You can move the selected node(s) by clicking and dragging any empty part of them. Alternatively, press G, move the mouse, and click LMB to confirm.

Dragging a node on top of an existing link will intelligently insert the selected node into the link path. This generally uses the first socket that matches the link type. The automatic node attachment feature can be toggled with Alt. When a node is automatically attached, the surrounding nodes will be offset to the right or left depending on the T toggle; see Auto-Offset for more information.

While dragging nodes, you can press F to toggle their parent Frame:

  • If the nodes are inside a frame, they will be detached from it.

  • If the nodes are not inside a frame and there is a frame under the cursor, they will be attached to that frame.

In general, it is recommended to arrange your nodes so that data flows from left to right, top to bottom.

The width of a node can be changed by dragging its left or right border.

Rotating (R) and scaling (S) only apply when multiple nodes are selected, and only affect their positions.

Connecting Sockets

LMB-click on a socket and drag. “Connect to Output” will see a line coming out of it; this is called a link. Keep dragging and connect the link to an input socket of another node, then release the LMB.

While multiple links can route out of an output socket, typically a single link can be attached to an input socket, that is unless the input is a multi-socket input with looks like a pill shaped socket.

To swap multiple links of a similar type, press and hold Alt while moving a link. This feature also works when adding a new link into a pre-existing socket.

To reposition the outgoing links of a node, rather than adding a new one, hold Ctrl while dragging from an output socket. This works for single as well as for multiple outgoing links.

Nodes that have no connections can be inserted on a link by just move the node over the link and release when the link is highlighted.

Disconnecting Sockets

Interactively

Drag the link away from its input socket and let it go, keeping it unconnected.

Copy/Paste

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Copy, Node ‣ Paste

Shortcut:

Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V

Not only the selected nodes but also the connections between them are copied to the clipboard.

Note

The pasted node will be placed in the same position as when it was copied. Use the same cautions as when duplicating.

Duplicate

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Duplicate

Shortcut:

Shift-D

Select one or more nodes, activate the menu item or press the key combination, then move the mouse to a new location and click LMB (or press Return) to place the duplicated node(s).

Note

When you duplicate a node, the new node will be positioned exactly on top of the node that was duplicated. If you leave it there (and it is quite easy to do so), you can not easily tell that there are two nodes there! When in doubt, select a node and move it slightly to see if something is hidden underneath.

Duplicate Linked

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Duplicate Linked

Shortcut:

Alt-D

Duplicate selected nodes, but not their node trees (in the case of group nodes), and move them.

Delete

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Delete

Shortcut:

X, Delete

Deletes the selected node(s).

Delete with Reconnect

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Delete

Shortcut:

Ctrl-X

Deletes the selected node(s), then creates new links connecting their former input nodes to their former output nodes.

Swap

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Swap

Shortcut:

Shift-S

The Swap operator replaces the selected node with another node type chosen from the menu.

All existing links are automatically reconnected where possible, matching input and output sockets by name and type. If a connection cannot be matched, it is left unconnected.

Show/Hide

Mute

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Show/Hide ‣ Mute

Shortcut:

M

Muting a node removes its contribution to the node tree, and makes all links pass through it without change. Links will appear red as an indicator of passing through the muted node.

Tip

Individual node links can be muted with Mute Links.

Node Preview

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Show/Hide ‣ Node Preview

Shortcut:

Shift-H

Shows/Hides a preview region on the node that displays the frame after that node’s operation has been applied. This can also be toggled by clicking the material ball icon in the node header.

Note

This operator are only available in the Compositor.

Node Options

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Show/Hide ‣ Node Options

Shows/Hides all node properties.

Unconnected Sockets

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Show/Hide ‣ Unconnected Sockets

Shortcut:

Ctrl-H

Collapses/Expands any input or output sockets that have no other nodes connected to them.

Collapse

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Show/Hide ‣ Unconnected Sockets

Shortcut:

H

Collapses the node so only the node header is visible. This can also be toggled by clicking the triangle on the left of the node header.

Collapse and Hide Unused Sockets

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Show/Hide ‣ Unconnected Sockets

Shortcut:

H

Applies both the Unconnected Sockets and Collapse operations.

Read View Layers

Reference

Menu:

Node ‣ Read View Layers

Shortcut:

Ctrl-R

Reads all the current scene’s render layers from cache, as needed. This can be used to save RAM while rendering because the render layers do not have to be saved in RAM. And also for recovering some information from a failed render. For this to work, Cache Result must be enabled.

Note

This operator are only available in the Compositor.

Connect to Output

Reference

Shortcut:

Shift-Alt-LMB

Connect the output of the selected node to the final output of the node tree (Material Output or World Output in Shader, the final Group Output in Geometry Nodes and Compositor, Output in Texture Nodes), or, if the node is inside a group, to the Group Output.