Instance on Elements Node

The Instance on Elements node creates instances of an object, collection, or geometry on selected elements of an input geometry. It can be used to distribute instances on points, edges, faces, or face corners, providing flexibility for procedural instancing workflows.

Inputs

Geometry

The geometry on which to create instances.

Instance On

The geometry element type to instance on.

Points:

Instances are created at the location of each point.

Edges:

Instances are placed along edges.

Faces:

Instances are placed on the surface of each face.

Corners:

Instances are created at each face corner (vertex per face).

Mask

A selection controlling which elements are used for instancing. Floating-point values between 0 and 1 are treated as probabilistic selections, resulting in a random subset of elements being used.

Input Type

Defines how the instance geometry input is provided.

Data-Block:

Instances are created from an object or collection data-block.

Geometry:

Instances are created from input geometry provided to the node.

Instance Type Data-Block

When using Data-Block input, determines whether to instance an Object or a Collection.

Object / Collection Data-Block

The specific object or collection to instance when using Data-Block input mode.

Instance Geometry

The geometry to instance when using Geometry input mode.

Realize Instances

Converts all instances into real geometry, producing a single combined geometry output. This can be required for some subsequent geometry operations or modifiers.

Keep Surface

Keeps the underlying surface used for instancing, rather than outputting only the instances.

Seed

Random seed value used to vary random selections or random instance indexing.

Pick Instance Data-Block Collection

When instancing from a collection, this option enables random or controlled selection of which child object to instance per element.

Instance Index

Determines how a child instance is chosen from the collection.

Random:

Picks a random object from the collection for each element.

Sequence:

Cycles through objects in collection order.

Input:

Uses the value from the Instance Index input socket.

Instance Index Input

Specifies the index of the object in the collection to be instanced, used when the Instance Index method is set to Input.

Transform

Surface Offset

Moves instances along the element normal, offsetting them from the surface.

Align Rotation

Aligns instance rotation to the orientation of the geometry element (e.g., normal direction).

Scale

Controls the uniform or per-axis scaling of instances.

Outputs

Geometry

The resulting geometry containing all instances created on the selected elements.