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  • Published 13 Jun 2018

Node editor: Show suggestion/searchbox when dragging from input/output sockets into empty space

Currently when working in the node editor if we want to add a node we do it trough the menu or the search box we can popup with shift+a shortcut. Then when we have our nodes we connect them.

I believe workflow can be improved if we can add nodes by simply dragging from a socket and auto connecting them.

How this would work:
1 User drags from any socket and releases the line in the work space.
2 Blender shows the search/list box of nodes.
3 By pressing a letter or typing a complete keyword, the list is then filtered by nodes the user is interested in.
4 After selecting the node the user wants, the node is added and the line automatically connects to the first matching socket.
5 The user can then cycle between sockets of the same type by using [Tab] or the [Up] and [Down] key.
6 When satisfied the user can simply hit enter or click the work space to finalize the action.

Motivation:
Rather than creating nodes first and then connecting the lines you can focus on setting up nodes in larger parts faster without having to go back and forth between connecting lines.

Here is a reference in Unreal Engine 4:

ue4

100%

Development Status: Open

Upvote 38 Downvote 0
sidartalei
13 Jun 2018

7 Comments

arvmetal

At the same time it would be very good, instead of having the material "enclosed in an object", let it float free to be able to edit several materials at once in a single Node Editor, and thus be able to connect Material Output with any object or sub object. It would also be good to have swatches and tabs to have multiple material groups, as in 3ds Max and Maya.

jozef_zajac

Hope it gets our the attention from the devs ;).

Lauloque

Maybe possible to do via python addon, if it's doesn't make it to the official releases targets.

sidartalei Author

As an extension should be fine too. It's kind of missing feature for me after using unreals shader editor

Lauloque

I know that feeling bro :')

o.mangold

That's a really cool idea. Would certainly increase efficiency a lot.

Draise

It is handy.