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Manage Nodes

Copy, Move Scene Nodes

Scene nodes are all the items which form a scene. They can be toolbox scene nodes or template scene nodes created from the "Imports" panel.

Sometimes during solution creation one scene needs to be split into more separate scenes, or many elements from different scenes need to be combined to keep the Solution clean and manageable. Instead of creating the nodes again they could be copy-pasted in as many other scenes as necessary.

First, right-click on the desired node in the Scene Tree and from the contextual menu select "Copy".

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Second, switch to the desired scene and right-click on the main node in the Scene Tree. Then select the Paste option.

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The desired element will be copied into the selected scene.

Another similar possibility is to get the desired nodes by using Cut option and to paste them into the new scene. The usual combos are available: Ctrl + c for Copy, Ctrl + x for Cut and Ctrl + v for Paste.

Upon copy/cut/paste operations, the SceneComposer will allow any operation and display a set of errors/warnings depending on the raised violations (e.g. missing references, bad paths and so forth).

It is possible to select and to cut/copy/paste two or more Nodes only if they are at the same level in the scene hierarchy. By using Ctrl + C shortcut it is possible to copy the path of any selected object together with all the properties to the clipboard. The path can be copied directly in the Properties panel.

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Clone, Delete, Rename Scene Nodes

Clone

Clone a scene node via the "Clone" context menu. The clone of the item will have the same name as the item, suffixed by a number, and will be placed in the same group or scene.

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If there is necessary to realize many clones of the same item, the "Multiple Clone" option should be used. As can be seen in the image below, the user has just to specify the "Base Name" of all the clones and how many copies are needed.

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When cloning (or pasting a node) the name of the new node will automatically check if there is already a number at the end of the name. If there is a number this should be increased automatically. For instance, if an existing "Node_1" (or "Node1") is cloned the name of the clone will be "Node_2" (or "Node2") and not "Node_1_1" (or "Node1_1").

The duplication of the item names is incremented based on the numeric suffix with our without an _ separator.

Delete

Delete a scene node via the "Delete" context menu.

  • If the item is not used anywhere, a simple prompt to confirm the deletion will appear.
  • If the item is used in an animation, the "Delete Item" dialog will be open and list the paths of the items from the animation where the scene node is used. The "OK" button is disabled so the scene node cannot be deleted.

Rename

Rename a scene node via the "Rename" context menu.

  • Item is not used anywhere; the renaming will take place as the user presses Enter key after editing.
  • Item with same name already exists (in the same location); warning message pops up.
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Properties of the instance items can also be modified in the user defined scene. Properties that have been changed can be reset to their value in the template item by clicking the "revert" button on the left of the property to be restored.

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The first change of a property from the value from the template will cause the name of the property and its value to appear in bold in the "Properties" panel of the main view.

Reset Node Structure

Groups which have been created from a template item (an imported scene graph) can be reset to the template structure with the context menu "Reset Structure" on the group:
Deleted or modified group elements will be restored to the default structure.

Multi-Selection and Comparison of Nodes

For multi-selection of nodes, press the Ctrl key while left clicking all the desired elements to select.
When the last desired element is selected the Ctrl key can be released.

Another way is to use one of select options from the Scene Tree context menu for multi-selection:

  • Select Leaf Nodes
  • Select Children
  • Select All Descendants

Examples:

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After the multi-selection operation it is possible to copy, move or delete all selected items as desired.

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