Node controls
The handful of flags every node in DNA shares — Bypass, Solo, Opacity, colour, name and size — and what each one actually does.
Every node, no matter what it makes, carries the same small set of controls. Learn them once and they work everywhere. Most live on the node body or in its right-click menu.
Bypass (B)
Bypass turns a node off without deleting it. When a node is bypassed, its input passes straight through untouched — as if the node weren't there. A generator with no input (like a shape.circle) simply produces nothing.
This is the clean way to A/B an effect: toggle Bypass to see your graph with and without that step. Right-click the node and choose Bypass, or select it and press B.
There is no "strength" or wet/dry dial on nodes. A node is either doing its job or it's bypassed — that's the whole switch. Use the node's own parameters (or keyframing) when you want a partial effect.
Bypassing changes what flows downstream, so the graph re-cooks and the viewport updates immediately.
Solo (S)
Solo spotlights one node so the viewport shows its output, ignoring whatever would normally be the final result. It's how you peek at an intermediate step deep in a graph without rewiring anything.
Right-click and choose Solo, or press S. Solo a different node and the spotlight moves; clear it to return to your graph's normal output.
Solo is great for debugging: walk it up the chain node by node to find exactly where something stops looking right.
Opacity
Nodes that contribute to a layered look carry an Opacity control (0–100%). Turning it down fades that node's contribution into whatever sits behind it in the composite — the same idea as a layer opacity slider in a paint app.
Opacity affects compositing, so the viewport recomposites as you drag it. For the bigger picture of how nodes stack and blend, see Layers & compositing.
Colour and family
Nodes are tinted by family (shapes, geometry, render, and so on) so you can read a graph at a glance. You can override any node's colour:
Right-click and pick one of the preset colour swatches, or
Choose Reset to Family Color to drop the override and go back to the default family tint.
Recolouring is purely cosmetic — handy for marking up "the hero chain" or grouping related nodes by eye. It never changes what a node does.
Rename and resize
Rename: double-click a node's title and type a new name. A clear name ("Lighting", "Hero Text") beats the default node type when a graph grows.
Resize: drag a node's edge or corner to make it bigger or smaller. Larger nodes are easier to read when you've pinned controls or want a parameter visible right on the body.
Both are layout-only and don't affect the result.
Renaming, recolouring and resizing cost you nothing at cook time — lean on them to keep big graphs legible.
See also
Parameter widgets — the per-node controls that sit alongside these flags
Cook policy — the cook badge and when a node recalculates