Doc:2.6/Reference/Nodes/Node Groups

Node Groups

Both material and composite nodes can be grouped. Grouping nodes can simplify the node network layout in the node editor, making your material or composite 'noodle' (node network) easier to work with. Grouping nodes also creates what are called NodeGroups (inside a .blend file) or NodeTrees (when appending).

Conceptually, "grouping" allows you to specify a set of nodes that you can treat as though it were "just one node." You can then re-use it one or more times in this or some other .blend file(s).

As an example: If you have created a material using nodes that you would like to use in another .blend file, you could simply append the material from one .blend file to another. However, what if you would like to create a new material, and use a branch from an existing material node network? You could re-create the branch. Or you could append the material to the new .blend file, then cut and paste the branch that you want into the new material. Both of these options work, but are not very efficient when working across different .blend files. What if you have created a “Depth of Field” composite node network and would like to use it in another .blend file? What if you wanted to apply exactly the same series of operations dozens of times? Here again, you could re-create the network, but this is not very efficient. A better method of re-use, for either material node branches or composite node networks, would be to create groups of nodes.

Once a group has been defined, it becomes an opaque object; a reusable software component. You can (if you choose) ignore exactly how it is defined, and simply use it (as many times as you like) for whatever it does. Groups can be made available through the Blender library and standard appending method.

Grouping Nodes

Panel: Node Editor

Menu: ⇧ ShiftA → Group → Make Group

To create a node group, in the node editor, select the nodes you want to include, then press CtrlG or ⇧ ShiftA » Group » Make Group. A node group will have a green title bar. All of the selected nodes will now be minimized and contained within the group node. Default naming for the node group is NodeGroup, NodeGroup.001 etc. There is a name field in the node group you can click into to change the name of the group. Change the name of the node group to something meaningful. When appending node groups from one .blend file to another, Blender does not make a distinction between material node groups or composite node groups, so I recommend some naming convention that will allow you to easily distinguish between the two types. For example, name your material node branches Mat_XXX, and your composite node networks Cmp_XXX.

What not to include in your groups (all types of Node editors)

Remember that the essential idea is that a group should be an easily-reusable, self-contained software component. Material node groups should not include: Source nodes if you include a source node in your group, you'll end up having the source node appearing twice: once inside the group, and once outside the group in the new material node-network. Examples of source nodes are: the Material Node (Material nodes editor) and the Render Layers Node (Composite Editor). Output node if you include an output node in the group, there won't be an output socket available from the group! Examples of output nodes are: the Output Node (Material nodes editor) and the Viewer Node (Composite Editor).

Editing Node Groups

With a group node selected, pressing ⇆ Tab expands the node to a window frame, and the individual nodes within it are shown to you. You can move them around, play with their individual controls, re-thread them internally, etc. just like you can if they were a normal part of your editor window. You will not be able to thread them to an outside node directly from them; you have to use the external sockets on the side of the Group node. To add or remove nodes from the group, you need to ungroup them.

Ungrouping Nodes

The AltG command destroys the group and places the individual nodes into your editor workspace. No internal connections are lost, and now you can thread internal nodes to other nodes in your workspace.

Appending Node Groups

Once you have appended a NodeTree to your .blend file, you can make use of it in the node editor by pressing ⇧ ShiftA → Add → Group, then select the appended group. The "control panel" of the Group is the individual controls for the grouped nodes. You can change them by working with the Group node like any other node.