Let’s deep dive into the most used Node wrangler add-on in Blender.
find out what can you do with Node-wrangler addon
Node Wrangler
Node Wrangler is an inbuilt add-on in Blender which is recommended by the masters of Blender who teaches 3D basics. They always recommend enabling this before they start teaching.
Uses of Node Wrangler
Node Wrangler enables you can do a lot of things with hotkeys. It automates the basic functions like creating a simple node setup with a single step.
Some of the main features that can help it work fast are these:
Previewing Texture
In the shader editor, we use a lot of textures. Only the mix of connected textures can be visible in the end. You can now preview each individual texture without messing up your node setup with single click using this addon.
By selecting the texture you want to preview,
using the hotkey “CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT CLICK” will show the RAW texture by displaying it on the selected object
Automatic PBR texture setup
PBR textures are the fastest way of texturing our models
but setting it up for different object by doing the same process like adding the image texture,
locating the texture in the appropriate folder and changing the settings for other maps like Roughness and Normal.
By selecting the Principle BSDF,
Using the hotkey “Ctrl + Shift + T” opens up the window to choose the textures you want to add.
After getting into the folder, select the texture you want to add,
hold Ctrl key to select multiple and Ctrl + A to select all. Then click on Principled Texture setup button, and it will automatically creates a PBR texture setup for you with correct color space.
Texture Coordinate and Mapping
Image textures of HDRI’s requires to be change the location of the texture in order to make it look good but setting up the Texture Coordinate and Mapping for it to scale, rotate the texture manually is time consuming.
By selecting the image texture, Using the hotkey ” Ctrl + T ” automatically adds a Texture Coordinate node and a Mapping node. now you can change the coordinates of the image like changing it to UV map, Camera View, or a generated co-ordinates etc. You can scale, rotate or change the location of the map using Mapping node.
Drag to Connect or Disconnect nodes
To disconnect any node, use ” Ctrl + Right click Drag” on the node wire/noodle whatever you call it, it will disconnect it with this hotkey.
To connect any two node, “Alt + Right Click Drag” will attach two nodes. use it again on the same node to connect different output.
