Node Bar lets you add shader nodes faster. You don't have to type anything in the Search or use drop down menus. Nodes are instantly accessible through recognizable icons, which also have tooltips. The Node Bar is fully customizable. You can organize your favorite nodes into one or multiple rows and group them to your liking. You can also label your rows.

Video Tutorial (3 min)

You can use a hotkey to display the Node Bar.

To add nodes you just click and drag nodes out from icons.

Resize Node Bar with Middle Mouse and move it with Right Mouse.

Customize Node Bar in the Shader Editor N-Panel. Group your favorite nodes however you like. You can also put them into rows and label each row.

The customizable Node Bar is called Mini Bar but you can also toggle the Full Bar, which simply contains all the nodes. Full Bar can be organized into one, two or three rows. That's a lot of icons, but because they are always in the same place, you will learn where things are after using it for a while.

Note that Node Bar is only for Shader Nodes. There is currently no support for Geometry Nodes or Compositor. However, I will be working on adding support for those in the coming months.

Release Notes:

Latest release: November 26th, 2023

1.1

• Updated Node Bar for blender 4.0.
• Fixed issues regarding changes in blender API.