The NodeBox user interface consists of several areas called panes.
The default layout shows 4 panes: viewer, parameters, source and network. You can change the pane type by choosing a new type from the menu. By clicking in the upper corner of each pane you can split and close the pane. Changing the width and height of each pane can be done by dragging the borders between them.
Viewer
The viewer pane shows the actual drawing. It also allows to visualise handles, points and point numbers by clicking the toggle button on top of the pane.
- Handles allows direct manipulation based on controlpoints
- Points visualise all points in a shape
- Point numbers returns the points and their number
The example here shows the drawing as a result of the place node which is at the end of the network.
Parameters
The parameter pane shows the variables and their value of a node.
Parameters can have several types like int, float string color, etc
Parameters can be controlled by a collection of widgets. For more information on the widgets and how to create new parameters: metadata.
The most common is a dynamic numberfield where:
- shift+mouse adds or substracts by an interval of 10
- mouse adds or substracts by an interval of 1
- alt+mouse adds or substracts by an interval of .1
The small arrow on the right of each variable allows user to go in "expression mode" which allows several expression like copystamping.
In the example the expression points out that the height of each rectangle should be a miniumvalue (20.0) together with a value which comes from the expression stamp("hoog",0) and is located in the place node, resulting in a range of possible heights for each rectangle
Source
The source pane shows the code behind each node.
The Reload button will save the new code when rewritting it. When errors occur, messages will be displayed in a messagebox (toggle on/off) on the bottom of the pane.
A small menu allows users to look at the code of the node as well as the code of the attached handles.
In the example below the source code of the rect node is shown.
Network
The network pane shows the nodenetwork.
Right click on the canvas has three options:
New Node (opens a list of all available nodes on the users computer) Reset View Go Up which is used for subnetworks or network in network structures. In the example below an instance of a node called place recieves a rect node which us used as shape and a grid node which is used as template. Each point on the grid will be used to place a rectangle on it.
Console
The console pane allows direct access to the Nodebox document internals.
It accepts statements such as node.addParameter("x",FLOAT).
In the screenshot, we've asked for the name of the currently selected node, and have added a new input port, called "template" to it.
For a more detailed overview, read the console documentation.
Log
The log panel shows various logging messages. It is only for advanced users and will not be documented here.