Preferences

All Material Graph settings are available under Edit > Preferences > Material Graph. You can also open them from the Material Graph overflow menu by choosing Edit > Preferences…. Changes take effect immediately unless noted otherwise.

General Settings

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Droppable Texture Formats	List of file extensions accepted when dragging textures onto the canvas (default: bmp, dds, exr, gif, hdr, jpeg, jpg, png, psd, tga, tif).	Files whose extension is not in this list are ignored on drop.	Adding uncommon extensions can allow unsupported files to be referenced, which can produce rendering errors.

Graph Settings

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Confine NodeGraphs to Context	Restricts NodeGraph visibility to the render context they are assigned to.	When enabled, NodeGraphs belonging to a different context are hidden in the canvas. When disabled, all NodeGraphs are visible regardless of context.	Disabling can cause visual clutter if the stage contains materials with many render contexts.
Confine Backdrops to Context	Restricts Backdrop visibility to the render context they are assigned to.	When enabled, Backdrops are shown only in their owning context. When disabled, Backdrops appear in every context.	Useful for keeping context-specific annotations from leaking into other contexts.
Default Backdrop Color	Sets the fill color applied to newly created Backdrops.	New Backdrops use this color. A Backdrop whose authored color is black also falls back to this value.	Changing the default can therefore affect Backdrops that use the black fallback.
Preview Texture Input	Shows an inline texture preview below nodes connected to a texture input.	When enabled, a thumbnail of the assigned texture file renders beneath the node body. When disabled, nodes display at their normal compact size.	Enabling previews on very large graphs can increase layout computation time.
Force Connect	Allows connections between ports whose types would normally be incompatible.	Bypasses type-compatibility checks so an output can be connected to an incompatible input. Cycle and same-prim checks still apply.	Mismatched-type connections can cause shader compilation errors or runtime rendering artifacts. Use with caution.
Color Connections	Colors noodles (connection wires) by port type.	When enabled, float, color, vector, and other data types receive distinct noodle colors. When disabled, all noodles use uniform gray.	Colored noodles improve readability in dense graphs but can be distracting in smaller setups.

Catalog Settings

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Textures Path	Directory used to load and store texture metadata and icons for the Textures tab. The default resolves from ${data}/catalog_textures.	Changing this path refreshes the Textures tab.	An invalid or inaccessible path results in an empty Textures tab.
Show Catalog | Toggles visibility of the Catalog panel (Nodes, NodeGraphs, and Textures tabs). | When disabled, the Catalog panel and drag-from-Catalog workflows are hidden.			Re-enabling the panel restores access to the Catalog.
Catalog Texture Icon Size	Pixel size of texture thumbnails in the Textures tab (default: 128).	Larger values produce bigger, easier-to-identify thumbnails. Smaller values fit more entries on screen.	Very large icon sizes can slow down panel rendering when many textures are present.
Compound Folders	List of folder paths scanned for reusable compound (NodeGraph) assets. The default resolves from ${data}/nodegraphs.	Discovered compounds appear in the Catalog’s NodeGraphs tab.	Adding folders with many nested assets increases initial scan time.

Export Settings

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Compound Default Export Path	Default destination directory when exporting a compound. The default resolves from ${data}/nodegraphs.	The export dialog opens to this path. You can still navigate elsewhere before saving.	If the path is invalid, you must select a valid destination.

MDL Plugin Settings

These settings control how MDL-based nodes and modules populate the Catalog and behave in the graph.

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Enable Polymorphic Nodes	Groups variant-capable MDL nodes into a single polymorphic entry in the Catalog.	When enabled, nodes that share a polymorphic root appear as one expandable item instead of separate entries. When disabled, every variant is listed individually.	Disabling can greatly increase the number of visible Catalog entries for modules with many variants.
Modules	List of MDL module paths used to populate the Catalog with shader nodes.	Only modules in this list (and their dependencies) are scanned. Adding a module triggers a Catalog refresh.	Listing very large or deeply nested modules increases Catalog load time.
Catalog Excluded Annotations	MDL annotations whose presence causes a node to be hidden from the Catalog.	Nodes carrying any of the listed annotations are filtered out during Catalog population.	Removing an annotation from this list exposes previously hidden nodes.
Output Port Overrides	Expected material output port names for the MDL render context.	Defines which output ports Material Graph treats as valid material terminals. Connections to unlisted ports are not treated as material outputs.	Incorrect overrides can prevent materials from compiling or rendering.

Custom Icons and Thumbnails (MDL)

MDL nodes can specify custom visuals in the Catalog and on the canvas through two annotations:

Annotation	Syntax	Purpose
Thumbnail	anno::thumbnail("<relative_path>")	Provides a thumbnail image displayed in the Catalog and on the node header.
Icon	icon(string path)	Provides a smaller icon displayed alongside the node name in the Catalog.

• The path is relative to the MDL file that defines the node.

• Precedence: anno::thumbnail > icon annotation > generic fallback icon.

• If neither annotation is present, the node uses a default icon based on its category.

MaterialX Plugin Settings

These settings control which MaterialX definitions are exposed in the Catalog.

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Ignored Contexts	List of MaterialX render contexts to omit from the Catalog.	Nodes belonging to any listed context are not shown.	Useful for hiding contexts that are not relevant to the current pipeline.
Ignored Families	List of MaterialX node families to omit from the Catalog.	All nodes in a listed family are hidden.	Helps reduce Catalog noise for families not used in production.
Ignored Name Patterns	Regular-expression patterns applied to MaterialX node names.	Any node whose name matches a pattern is excluded from the Catalog.	Invalid regex patterns are skipped and reported in the application log.
Output Port Overrides	Expected material output port names for the MaterialX render context.	Defines valid material terminal ports, similar to the MDL equivalent.	Incorrect overrides can prevent MaterialX materials from rendering.

Universal Plugin Settings

Setting	Description	Behavioral Effect	Side Effects
Output Port Overrides	Expected material output port names for the Universal render context.	Defines valid material terminal ports for UsdPreviewSurface and related shaders.	Incorrect overrides can prevent Universal materials from rendering correctly.