Node Deck

Introducing: Node Deck

Fast Visual Node Picker for Blender Geometry Nodes

Overview

Node Deck is a fast visual node explorer for Blender's Geometry Nodes editor. It provides a palette-and-deck workflow for browsing, searching, favoriting, and placing nodes without digging through Blender's standard Add menu.

Designed for artists and technical users alike, Node Deck keeps commonly used nodes within immediate reach, helping speed up node creation and reduce interruptions while building Geometry Nodes systems.

Designed for speed

Node Deck adds an interactive node deck directly inside the Node Editor, combining visual browsing, searchable catalogs, favorites, recents, and drag-and-drop placement into a single streamlined workflow.

Use it as a fixed palette for instant access to nodes at all times, or switch to popup mode when you prefer a hotkey-driven workflow that stays out of the way until needed.

Features

Workflow

• Fixed palette mode for always-visible node access
• Popup mode with configurable hotkey
• Click-to-place node workflow
• Drag-and-drop node placement
• Keep deck open after drag/drop option
• DPI-aware drag/drop placement

Organization

• Favorites tab for frequently used nodes
• Recents tab showing recently added nodes
• Automatic Geometry Nodes-compatible node catalog
• Favorites keep their original group colors
• Recent nodes update automatically after placement

Search & Navigation

• Search filtering while typing
• Search support inside Favorites and Recents grids
• Horizontal and vertical deck scrubbing
• Adjustable scrub speed, sensitivity, and scrub zone
• Mouse-wheel grid scrolling
• Wide scrollbar for quick navigation

Customization

• Custom palette tab header colors
• Restore default palette colors
• Optional socket dots on cards
• Always-show or hover-only tab names
• Top or bottom fixed palette placement

Node Categories

• Geometry
• Input
• Texture
• Color
• Vector
• Converter
• Math

Compatibility

Designed for Blender 5.1+

Built specifically for Geometry Nodes workflows

Integrated directly into the Node Editor

Designed to make Geometry Nodes creation faster, cleaner, and more accessible.

Support: animationsvfx@gmail.com

Documentation

Node Deck

Node Deck is a fully customizable visual node explorer for Blender's Geometry Nodes editor. It adds a palette/deck interface for browsing, searching, favoriting, and placing nodes faster.

Compatibility

Blender: 5.1.0 or newer

Editor: Geometry Nodes inside the Node Editor

Installation

• Download the node_deck_v0_1.zip file.
• In Blender, go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.
• Click Install from Disk... and select the zip file.
• Enable the add-on by searching for Node Deck and checking the box.

Quick Start

• Open a Geometry Nodes node tree.
• Use the fixed palette at the bottom of the Node Editor.
• Hover a palette tab to open that group.
• Move over a card to select it.
• Click a card to add the node.
• Click and drag a card into the editor to drop the node at that location.
• Type while the deck is open to search.

Palette Modes

Fixed

Fixed mode keeps the palette visible in the Node Editor. The default release setup uses this mode with the palette at the bottom.

Default fixed behavior:

Palette Mode: Fixed

Fixed Palette Position: Bottom

Palette Size: 40 px

Tab Names: Always Show

Show Socket Dots: Off

Popup

Popup mode opens the deck with a configurable hotkey.

Default popup hotkey:

Alt + D

Popup placement options:

Center — opens in the center of the Node Editor.

Left of Cursor — opens near the current cursor position.

Node Groups

Node Deck scans Blender for nodes that can be added to a GeometryNodeTree, then organizes them into palette groups:

• Favorites
• Recents
• Geometry
• Input
• Texture
• Color
• Vector
• Converter
• Math

Texture, image, noise, gradient, and pattern nodes are grouped under the dedicated Texture tab.

Favorites

Use Favorites for nodes you place often.

• Select or hover a card.
• Press Ctrl + F to add it to Favorites.
• Press Ctrl + F again to remove it.
• Favorite cards always show a yellow outline.
• Hovered favorite cards also show a white outline.

Recents

The Recents tab updates automatically after placing nodes. It uses the same grid view as Favorites.

Search

Type while the deck is open to filter visible nodes.

Search checks:

• Node label
• Blender node ID
• Node group label

Search works in the regular deck and inside Favorites/Recents grids. The active search text appears in a visible search bar between the deck/grid and the card info.

Placement

Node Deck supports two placement workflows.

Click To Add

The default release behavior is Left Click.

Hover/select a card.

Left-click the card.

The node is added to the current Geometry Nodes tree.

Drag And Drop

Click and drag a card.

The palette hides while dragging.

Release over the node editor.

The card shrinks at the drop location.

The node is created at the dropped location.

Drag/drop placement accounts for Blender DPI scaling and node dimensions.

Scrubbing

Scrubbing controls how the deck moves through cards as the cursor moves.

Default release values:

Deck Direction: Horizontal

Scrub Step: 100 px

Scrub Sensitivity: 0.50

Scrub Zone: 80 px

Lower scrub step values move through cards faster. Higher values move through cards slower.

Grid Views

Favorites and Recents use a 3×3 grid.

Grid behavior:

Hover cards to select.

Use the mouse wheel to scroll.

Use the wide scrollbar on the right for direct scrolling.

Type to filter the grid.

Preferences

Node Deck settings are available in Blender's Add-on Preferences and the Node Editor sidebar panel.

Main preference groups:

Palette mode

Fixed palette position

Popup hotkey and popup placement

Palette size

Tab name display

Socket dot visibility

Confirm mode

Keep open after drag/drop

Deck direction

Scrub speed and sensitivity

Palette header colors

Palette header colors can be customized per tab. Use Restore Defaults to return all tab colors to the shipped defaults.

Version

Current release: 0.1