Inserting a Node with the Marionette Tool

The Marionette tool places nodes, and also enables a special Debug mode for troubleshooting.

Mode

Description

Current Node list

Opens the Resource Selector to select a node for placement; double-click a node resource to activate it

Insert

Enables the selection and placement of nodes from the Current Node list

Debug

Allows for troubleshooting and debugging networks; see Debugging a Marionette Script for more information

Preferences

Provides the option to cache data from the latest run of the network. Select Cache Last Run in Debug Mode to display the values that flowed through each wire without re-executing the script; see Debugging a Marionette Script.

Marionette nodes are page-based objects, displaying on the screen plane and scaling to the page dimensions. They should be worked with in Top/Plan view.

Nodes are color coded and categorized by function. A node reference is available online at developer.vectorworks.net/index.php/Marionette.

The nodes’ input and output ports have prefixes denoting the type of data that can pass through them.

Prefix

Data type

Boolean

Handle

Integer

item

Item (any object type)

list

List (any object type)

Matrix

Number/Dimension

Point

String

Vector

To insert a node:

Click the Marionette tool from the Basic palette, and click Insert mode from the Tool bar.

Click Current Node on the Tool bar. From the Resource Selector, double-click a resource to activate it.

Click in the drawing to place the node.

The node properties can be accessed from the Object Info palette.

Parameter	Description
Edit	For basic nodes, opens the Script Editor dialog box to change the functionality of the node; for object or wrapper nodes, accesses an editing mode. For more information, see Creating and Editing Nodes.
Description (Basic nodes only)	Gives a brief description of the purpose of the node and relevant inputs and outputs
Edit Description (Wrapper nodes only)	Opens the Wrap Marionette Network dialog box to edit the node name or description. For more information, see Marionette Wrapper Nodes.
Run	Executes the node; if the node is part of a network, it executes the network
Name	Enter a name for the selected node. If a name is assigned, it displays at the top of the node. For more information, see Naming Nodes.
Parameters	Specifies the parameter values to be passed to the associated node

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