Unit 00. Introduction to Blender 2.8+, the NodeView and 3DView

Sverchok Installed, what now?

If you have a tickbox beside the Sverchok add-on in the Add-ons list in User Preferences, then it’s safe to assume the add-on is enabled. To show the basics you need to have a NodeView open, and it’s useful to have a 3DView open at the same time.

NodeView and 3DView

image1

  1. Split a View:

    To do this we can split the existing 3DView into two views, by leftclicking into the little triangle/diagonal lines in the bottom left of the 3dview, and dragging to the right.

    splittingawindow

  2. Switch a View:

    Now you have two windows, switch one of them in the Editor Type dropdown. If Sverchok is installed correctly it will be listed here as Sverchok Nodes

    switchview

  3. Make a new Tree:

    When you start out you will have to press the New button to make a new node tree called (by default) NodeTree

    image4

    becomes

    image5

  4. Adding Nodes to the View:

    From the NodeView, you can use the following ways to add nodes to tree:

    • Use the Add menu from menu bar (Sverchok has little control over how this menu is laid out, protip: use the next method instead)

      image6

    • Hit Shift-A (standard Blender’s shortcut for adding things, we inject our own menu into it, with icons!):

      • don’t be alarmed if what you see in your menu is not 100% identical to this image, new features are continuously added/changed.

      image7

    • Hit Alt-Space. This shortcut calls for a special search menu, which allows you to search for nodes and macros:

      • once you get to know Sverchok you can type in “trigger” words associated with a node, to quickly narrow down the search list.

      • trigger macros using > some word. More about macros later. If you stick with Sverchok they will be your secret weapon.

      image8

    • Use Blender’s standard search box, which appears when you hit F3 in node view:

      • this search box contains Operators for adding any sverchok node to the view, but you’ll also find that it contains all other relevant Operators for that view. Sverchok also registers a few general Application Operators, and this is one way to execute them if you know what you’re looking for.

      image9