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Contents 1 Tool Context Menu 1.1 View On 1.2 Create/Play Preview On 1.3 Settings 1.4 Cache To Disk 1.5 Modes 1.5.1 Update 1.5.2 Locked 1.5.3 Show Controls 1.5.4 Pass Through 1.5.5 Force Cache 1.5.6 Cluster 1.6 Select 1.7 Set Render Range 1.8 Show 1.9 Rename 1.10 Swap Inputs 1.11 Cut And Copy 1.12 Paste Settings 1.13 Delete 1.14 Group/UnGroup 1.15 Macro 1.16 Edit Splines

Tool Context Menu

Right-clicking on a tool displays that tool's context menu. The options available from this menu are described below, unless they have already been discussed in detail earlier in the chapter.

View On

Select an option from this submenu to display the tool's output on one of the available image displays or hardware frame buffers.

Create/Play Preview On

Create a preview of the tool's output on one of the available image displays or hardware frame buffers. Also create a preview by holding down Alt while dragging the tool into the display view. Hold down the Shift key when selecting the preview from the menu, or hold Shift-Alt to skip the render dialog and to start creating the preview immediately with the default settings or the last settings used to create a preview.

Settings

The options in this submenu are used to save a tool's settings to a .setting file, to load .settings files from disk, as well as to create or remove saved defaults for that tool.

Cache To Disk

Select this option to display a dialog used to create and manage the Disk Cache. The disk cache is covered in more detail in its own chapter later in this manual.

Modes

Update

This option is selected by default. If it is turned off, the tool will still allow changes to its settings and parameters but it will not update or process an image unless the Update option is turned back on.

Locked

Locking a tool will prevent changes from being made to the tool's settings.

Show Controls

This option is on by default. If Show Controls is turned off, the tool will no longer appear in the tool controls area. Its onscreen controls will no longer appear in the display views.

Pass Through

A tool that has been passed through will not process its images or masks when rendered. The tool will simply Pass Through any images it receives in its inputs.

Force Cache

When this option is enabled, the tool's output for the current frame has an extremely high cache priority, essentially forcing it to stay cached in memory.

Cluster

This option causes the output of the tool to be pre-rendered automatically by one or more machines. This option is covered in greater detail in the Network Rendering chapter found later in this manual.

Select

The Select submenu can be used to select the tool immediately downstream (connected to the output) or upstream (connected to the input) of the active tool. The tool is added to the current selection. It does not replace it. If there are multiple tools connected to the downstream output, all of them will be selected.

Set Render Range

This menu command will Set the Render Range of the flow to the valid range of frames available to the tool. Especially useful when you want to limit the render range e.g. to the valid frames of a Loader.

To set the render range you could also drag the tool directly onto the time ruler.

Show

The options in this submenu enable and disable the display of additional information on a tool tile, such as whether or not a tile displays a thumbnail picture, its name, or icons representing cached and locked states.

See Displaying Tile Pictures for more information.

Rename

Rename changes the name of the selected tool(s).

Swap Inputs

This menu command will swap the Primary and Secondary inputs on a multiple input tool, such as the foreground and background of a Merge tool. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-W will also swap the inputs of the selected tool.

Cut And Copy

Cut and Copy the tool to the clipboard. See Copying And Pasting Tools for more information.

Paste Settings

Replace the active tool's settings with settings from a tool in the clipboard. See Copying And Pasting Tools for more information.

Delete

Delete the selected tool(s) from the flow. See Deleting Tools for more information.

Group/UnGroup

Collapse the selected tools into a group or uncollapse an existing group. See Groups for more information.

Macro

Use this menu to open an existing macro for editing or to select a macro from another folder to edit.

Edit Splines

Switch the view to the spline editor. The splines for the selected tool(s) are displayed and enabled for editing.