The Node Settings Toolbar
Every node's settings panel has a toolbar of nine buttons across the top. The buttons are icon-only — hover over one to see its tooltip. From left to right they let you re-run the node, inspect it, manage temporary and saved configurations, and open its documentation.
Overview
| # | Button (tooltip) | Icon | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Force Update | circular refresh arrow | Re-runs this node's computation. |
| 2 | Node Information | "i" info symbol | Opens the node information view. |
| 3 | Backup State | bookmark | Snapshots the current settings into the backup slot. |
| 4 | Revert State | U-turn-left arrow | Swaps the current settings with the backup slot. |
| 5 | Load Preset | open document | Loads settings from a file. |
| 6 | Save Preset | floppy disk | Saves the current settings to a file. |
| 7 | Reset Settings | circular restore arrow | Restores the node's initial (default) settings. |
| 8 | Help! | question mark | Opens the node's in-app documentation popup. |
| 9 | Online Documentation | chain link | Opens the node's page on the online documentation. |
The rest of this page covers the buttons that have behaviour worth explaining in more detail.
Force Update
Force Update re-runs the node's computation on demand. Nodes normally recompute automatically when an input or a parameter changes, so you rarely need this — it is handy when you want to force a fresh evaluation (for example after changing a setting that feeds randomness) without otherwise touching the graph.
Backup and Revert State (swap mechanism)
The Backup State and Revert State buttons work together to provide a manual two-slot swap mechanism for temporary state management during editing. The backup slot lives in memory and is not saved with your project.
How it works
- Backup State: Saves the current configuration into the backup slot.
- Revert State: Swaps the current configuration with the one stored in the backup slot.
This lets you toggle between two configurations, which is useful for quickly testing variations.
Example
- Start with a node in Config1.
- Click Backup State → Config1 is stored.
- Modify the node → it becomes Config2.
- Click Revert State → the node reverts to Config1, and Config2 is now stored.
- Click Revert State again → the node reverts to Config2, and Config1 is now stored again.
- This "swap" can continue back and forth.
Continuing with new changes
- If you're happy with Config2, click Backup State to overwrite the backup slot with Config2.
- Modify the node to reach Config3.
- Now, clicking Revert State will swap between Config2 and Config3.
Load and Save Presets
To permanently store or share node configurations, use:
- Save Preset: Saves the current configuration to a file.
- Load Preset: Loads a configuration from a file and applies it to the node.
Unlike the in-memory backup slot, presets are written to disk, so they are ideal for managing multiple configuration profiles across sessions or between projects.
Reset Settings
Reset Settings restores the node to its initial (default) settings. This is different from Revert State: Revert swaps with the snapshot you took, whereas Reset discards your changes entirely and returns the node to its defaults.
Help and Online Documentation
The last two buttons both open documentation, but from different sources:
- Help! opens the node's documentation in an in-app popup, so you can read it without leaving Hesiod.
- Online Documentation opens the node's page in the online documentation in your web browser.