Blueprint Assist Plugin

[fpwong]

LINKS: Marketplace | Documentation

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This plugin provides automatic formatting and mouse-free node editing when working with blueprints.

I started creating this plugin with two goals in mind:

1. Save developers hundreds of hours otherwise spent aligning, positioning and straightening blueprint nodes
2. Quality of life keyboard shortcuts which avoid tedious mouse usage (constant disconnecting and reconnecting)

And so the plugin includes these 3 major features:

1. Automatic node formatting: A command to format nodes into nice readable, aligned form. Including a format all symbols command.
2. Mouse-free blueprint controls: Keyboard shortcuts for node navigation, creation and linking
3. Useful commands: Link Nodes Between Wires, Replace node with, Disconnect execution, and more

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For more animated examples, check out the command list

Example of mouse-less blueprint creation

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Example of the formatting feature

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The Blueprint Assist plugin has very simple support for comment boxes. I suggest you download my other free plugin, AutoSizeComments. It forces your comment boxes to snap to contained nodes and adds support for color presets.

[Wijat_Xu]

Here is the very bad stuff, Switch node is really can not work well!

Before I format it:

After I format it:

My suggestion is that these exec lines can be pulled longer to avoid a lot of crossover. Now the white exec line will cross a lot on the switch node and the sequence node. This type blueprint is can not to read it. Then I can only manually adjust these stuff when I work.

[Wijat_Xu]

Today, I am messy by auto format again. Man, maybe you want to take a look at this:

[Wijat_Xu]

Maybe you want to take a look at this.

[Wijat_Xu]

It stops here and says node out of the window every time.

[fpwong]

Large update today, check out version 3.0! The changelog for updates will be posted on the wiki from now on.

Changelog · fpwong/BlueprintAssistWiki Wiki

[ClockworkOcean]

Hi FP

I use Assist all the time - love it.

I noticed it wasn’t as good as formatting materials. But now what happens, is if I press F in a material the whole thing just locks…

[fpwong]

@ClockworkOcean

if I press F in a material the whole thing just locks…

Hi @ClockworkOcean, thanks for enjoying the plugin. I’m aware of this issue and am trying to fix this asap. Hopefully the update will be out by tomorrow. There is also a crash which has been fixed related to compiling material graphs, I would suggest disabling the plugin if you are working in the material editor until the update comes out.

[ClockworkOcean]

Thanks!

It’s a real joy to use…

[fpwong]

Update 3.1.0 has been released, see changelog here

[Jerome_Parent]

@fpwong I updated from 2.3.3 to 3.1.0 yesterday and am able to repro this assert 100% using the following steps:

1. PIE
2. Open a Widget Blueprint
3. Go to the Graph tab
4. Go back to the Designer tab
   
   

[Cronofear_Dev]

Hi! I’m using this plugin and the autosize comment plugin recently. The plugin has been working pretty good so far, saving me a lot of time from doing node rearrangement to make my blueprints readable. However i’m having an issue with comment boxes and component references, whenever i drag a component reference inside a box comment, it will get deleted/won’t be placed in the graph. However if i drag the reference outside of the comment, it works as expected. Here is a picture that i think it explains this issue better:

I have sometimes comment boxes that enclose many events, so this bug(?) can be a bit annoying to dealt with.

[fpwong]

Hi @Jerome_Parent, sorry about the late reply. Not getting email notifications from the forums. This issue should be fixed now, please update the plugin.

[fpwong]

Thanks @Cronofear_Dev, I’ll look into fixing this.

[Subressor]

Hey, getting this crash on 4.27.2 when trying to use the mesh editor

[fpwong]

@Subressor This issue should be fixed in version 3.2.15

[Tomwwy_Tom1]

Hi @fpwong , this plugin looks amazing!
I was wondering can you add 2 more little features? 1. Right click + drag on nodes to directly move them instead of dragging out connection lines, 2. Hit “G” to move selected nodes without the need to click on nodes. These features are inspired by blender’s node system, which in my opinion work great and are easy to implement.
If you can add these it will be perfect!

[fpwong]

@Tomwwy_Tom1 Hey, could you explain more about how these would work? Possibly a gif or a link to blender video would be great.

1. Right click + drag on nodes: is this the same as left clicking to move a node but without selecting it?
2. G to move nodes: how do you move the nodes after pressing the hotkey, do you use the cursor?

[Tomwwy_Tom1]

Yes @fpwong you got it right,

1. The problem with the default left click drag for moving nodes is it needs precision, often dragging out connection line by mistake. The default right click drag is panning, but if change it to middle click, right click drag still does nothing.
   

This is especially painful with single dot connector.

In blender you can use right click to move nodes without worrying.

2. G to move nodes is also a more fluent way to move nodes in my opinion. In blender we do use it with cursor, but I think keyboard arrows may also work.

[kvickerz]

Hey, also wanted to drop in and say I’m really enjoying this plugin, kicking myself I didn’t look into plugins like this sooner.

Something I’ve thought for a long time that would be a good addition to blueprint would be a context menu option to convert a get to a set and vice versa. I don’t know if you’re still working on the plugin but this would be an awesome feature to have if you feel inclined!