Skip to content
Surface Labs

Node Reference Overview

The node reference documents all 72 node types, grouped by the same categories the Node Library uses. Each entry follows one structure: the node’s label, its type id, a short statement of purpose, its input and output ports, and a table of every parameter with type, default, range and notes.

Categories

Section titled “Categories”

Those pages line up with the categories the Node Library shows, with one exception: Distance Field and Erosion are listed under Filters in the library and documented together on the Simulation & Compute page, because they share the iterative compute path. Routing has no page of its own: its single node is documented at the bottom of this one.

Beyond these categories, the Custom Shader node (custom_shader) lets you write a node of your own in shader code. It has its own section of the documentation: see Custom Shader Node.

Shared conventions

Section titled “Shared conventions”

A few behaviors repeat across the whole library, so they are stated once here rather than on every entry.

  • Mask input. Where a node has a Mask input, it composites the node’s result back over what the node would otherwise have shown. On a transform or filter, masked-out areas keep the node’s own unmodified input; where that input is optional and nothing is connected to it, they fall back to the port’s own neutral instead, which is why masking a Blend with an empty Base gives transparency rather than gray. Tile Sampler is the only generator with a Mask, and a generator has no upstream image to fall back to, so masked-out areas there resolve to black. On a node with more than one output, the mask applies to the first output only.
  • Seeds. A Seed control is a whole number with no slider. Type a value or press the randomize button beside it. Changing the seed reshuffles the pattern without changing any other characteristic.
  • Per-node resolution. Every node renders at the project resolution by default. Select a node and use its Resolution dropdown to override that: Inherit follows the project setting, Match input takes the largest resolution feeding the node (the project default when it has no inputs), or pick a fixed square: 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 or 8192. The ladder stops at 4096 on iPad and Android. See Resolution and Bit Depth.
  • Deprecated nodes. A handful of node types are deprecated. They are hidden from the Node Library but still open in existing projects, and each entry names the node that supersedes it.

Routing

Section titled “Routing”

The Routing category holds a single node. The Node Library lists it under Canvas with the Comment Box and Jump Node rather than in a category of its own, since it is placed the way canvas furniture is.

Reroute

Section titled “Reroute”

Type id: reroute

A wiring-only pin. It bends a wire around the graph without changing what flows through it. It carries no shader, no parameters and no processing, and downstream consumers, including export and Trim Sheet slot resolution, look straight through it to the real source.

Inputs:

  • In (any, required): bypasses type checking, so it passes textures, materials and anything else unchanged.

Outputs:

  • Out (any): exactly what came in.

This node has no parameters.

Insert one by double-tapping a wire, which splits the connection at that point: the upstream half becomes the reroute’s input and the downstream half becomes its output, all as a single undo step. On desktop you can also hover a wire and press the . key. It draws as a small circle rather than a node card.