Node View Menu

The Node View menu lets you organize the nodes according to how you like to work and the nodes you use most often. You can easily add categories and subcategories, remove categories you don't use, and rename categories.

Command Description

File

Print

Lets you print the contents of the Node view. You must be connected to a printer.

Edit

 

Cut

Removes selected objects. You can then paste the object or its properties to another object.

Copy

Copies selected objects and properties.

Paste

Places an object you cut or copied into the location you select in a view.

Paste Special

Lets you copy and paste selected drawings into a different layer or paste the selection in the same layer to duplicate the drawings.

Paste Special Again

Pastes new drawings with the previous Paste Special settings.

Delete

Removes selected objects.

Select All

Selects all drawing objects in the current drawing window in the Drawing, Timeline and Camera views. This helps you manage multiple objects as one when moving them.

Deselect All

Deselects all selected objects in the Drawing and Camera views.

Invert Selection

Deselects the currently selected items and selects all other items that were not selected. For example, if some lines are selected in a drawing, this command will deselect them and select any other lines in the drawing that were not selected.

Layer Properties

Shows or hides the Layer Properties view.

Recalculate Selected

Refreshes the node structure and rerenders the display of selected elements when the Camera View is in render mode.

Recalculate All

Refreshes the node structure and rerenders the display when the Camera view is in render mode.

Tag

You can tag elements in the Timeline or Node views to view only those elements. When you tag elements, an asterisk appears beside the item in the Timeline view. Once your elements are tagged and you have switched over to View Tagged Layers mode, the Timeline view will display only tagged elements. The red bar on the left of the layers indicates you are in this view mode. See About Timeline View Modes.

Timeline Tag: Tags selected elements in the Timeline or Node views.

Timeline Untag: Untags selected layer in the Timeline view.

Timeline Untag All: Untags all tagged elements.

Timeline Untag All Others: Untags all elements except the selected one.

Auto Render Write

Renders a frame each time the current frame is changed.

You must have a Write node in your node structure to use this command.

Select Child Skipping Effects

Lets you select the first element parented to the selected peg element in the Timeline view skipping effects in the hierarchy.

Select Child

Lets you select the first element parented to the selected peg element in the Timeline view.

Select Group Content

Select contents within the group node.

Select Children

Lets you select all elements parented to the selected peg element in the Timeline view.

Select Parent Skipping Effects

Lets you select the parent of the selected element in the Timeline view skipping effects in the hierarchy.

Select Parent

Lets you select the parent of the selected element in the Timeline view.

Select Previous Sibling

Lets you select the previous element (above current element) in the Timeline view.

Select Next Sibling

Lets you select the next element (below current element) in the Timeline view.

View

Zoom In Node View

Zooms in the view.

Zoom Out Node View

Zooms out the view.

Reset Zoom

Resets the view’s zoom to its default position.

Centre on Selection

Centre the display of the Node view on the selected node. This is useful when you have many nodes in the Node view, you may find it hard to locate which one is selected.

Reset Pan

Resets the view’s pan to its default position.

Reset View

Resets the view to its default position.

Show All Nodes

Display all nodes.

Editor

Display the Layer Properties editor of the selected node.

Publish Attribute Node

To quickly access parameters for nodes that are grouped, you can select your most common parameters to modify and make them appear in the group Layer Properties editor. This way, you can access them directly without having to enter the group every time.

Show Selected Thumbnails

Displays the thumbnails of selected nodes.

Hide All Thumbnails

Hides all the thumbnails of selected nodes.

Navigator

 

Hide Navigator: Hides the navigator.

Top Right: Places the navigator in the top-right corner of the Node view.

Top Left: Places the navigator in the top-left corner of the Node view.

Bottom Right: Places the navigator in the bottom-right corner of the Node view.

Bottom Left: Places the navigator in the top-left corner of the Node view.

Cable Style

Line: Use straight lines to show the connections between nodes.

Bezier: Use curved (Bezier) lines to show the connections between nodes.

Nodes

Enable

Activate the selected node.

Disable

Deactivate the selected node.

Enable All

Activate all nodes.

Disable All Others

Deactivates all nodes except for those those selected. This operation only affects the current level layers. It does not affect the nested nodes within a group. Deactivated nodes appear in red.

Clone Selected Nodes: Drawings and Timing

Creates a copy of the selected element that is linked to the original. If a drawing is modified in the original or cloned layer, both will be updated. However, cloned layers can have different timings.

When you clone a node, it does not automatically connect itself to the Composite node of your scene.

You can clone the drawings only or both the drawings and timing—see About Clone and Duplicate Layers .

Clone Selected Nodes: Drawings Only

Duplicate Selected Nodes

Creates an independent copy of the selected element. This useful when you need to modify the element independently, including the timing (exposure). Changes to the original element do not propagate to the duplicate.

Group Selection

Creates a simple group from your selection. The resulting group displays the same number of connections as elements in the group.

Group Selection with Composite

Group a selection.

Ungroup

Ungroups the selected group of nodes.

Move to Parent Group

Moves selected nodes up to the parent group level.

Exit Group

Exits the group.

Clear Published Attributes

Removes the most common parameters you selected for quick access in the Layer Properties editor of a group.

Insert

Composite

Adds a Composite node to the Node view.

Display

Adds a Display node to the Node view.

Drawing

Opens the Add Drawing Layer dialog box where you can specify the type of layer to add.

Group

Adds a Group node to the Node view.

Parent Peg

Adds a new peg to the timeline as a parent of the selected layer.

Peg

Adds a Peg node to the Node view.

Effects

Lets you add effects from these categories: 3D, Combine, Deformation, Favourites, Filter, Generator, Group, Misc, Move, Output, Particle, Sapphire, Shading and Plugins.

Backdrop

Adds a backdrop to the Node view. Backdrops are a way to work with complex node systems that let you associate a selected set of nodes by colour. See About Backdrops.