Blackboard

Blackboard is a system for defining variables, constants and graph inputs. It can be found in the top left corner of the Node Graph panel. Under the icon, you can find options to add variables and graph inputs.

Select desired variable type from the menu and click on icon to add it to the blackboard. It can now be accessed in the graph.

Accessing variables

Variables defined in the blackboard can be accessed by using the Blackboard Variable Value node.

Nested documents and blackboard

When using Nested Document nodes (smart layers), PixiEditor will automatically create inputs from the document’s blackboard as part of the nested document node.

Each variable has an option not to be exposed as a graph input by toggling off the icon next to the variable in the blackboard.

For more information about smart layers and nested documents, check out the Nested Document and Expose Values documentation.

Brushes and blackboard

Blackboard serves a special role when creating brushes, check Creating custom brushes - Advanced guide for more details.

Available variable types

For the details about each variable type, see the Property Sockets page.

Decimal Number

Decimal Number is a variable type that represents a double (floating point number with 64 bits of precision), such as 0.5, -1.23, etc.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Size

Size is a variation of Decimal Number, it represents a positive whole number, such as 0, 1, 2, etc.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Whole Number

Whole Number is a variable type that represents a whole number, such as -1, 0, 1, 2, etc.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Vector

Vector is a variable type that represents a 2D vector, which has two components: X and Y. Each component is a Decimal Number.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: No

Whole Number Vector

Whole Number Vector is a variable type that represents a 2D vector, which has two components: X and Y. Each component is a Whole Number.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: No

Text

Text is a variable type that represents a string of characters, such as “Hello, World!”.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Font Family

Font Family is a variable type that represents a font family, such as “Arial”, “Times New Roman”, etc.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Matrix

Matrix is a variable type that represents a 3x3 matrix, which is used for transformations in 2D space.

Node Editor Available: No
Toolbar Editor Available: No

Boolean (true/false)

Boolean is a variable type that represents a value that can be either true or false.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Brush

Brush is a variable type that represents a reference to the document of the brush.

Node Editor Available: No
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Document

Document is a variable type that represents a reference to any pixi document. Selecting a document from within the blackboard editor will load the document, but not link it (updating the source document won’t update the variable value automatically).

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Paintable

Paintable is a type that describes fill/brush. Color is a paintable, it describes a solid color fill. Another type of paintable is a Gradient, which describes a gradient fill and Texture Paintable, which describes a texture fill.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Color

Color is a variable type that represents a RGBA color.

Texture

Texture is a variable type that represents a reference to a texture.

Node Editor Available: Yes
Toolbar Editor Available: Yes

Painter

Painter is a variable type that represents a set of instructions for painting on a canvas.

Node Editor Available: No
Toolbar Editor Available: No

Vector Path

Vector Path is a variable type that represents a path made out of vector points.

Node Editor Available: No
Toolbar Editor Available: No

Any

Any is a variable type that can hold any value of any type.

Node Editor Available: No
Toolbar Editor Available: No