node data box

Home > Display > Inspect

< Previous: Realize | Next: Working with clusters >

Node Library

   Inspect (node)

Show a text read-out of whatever data flows in - every data type gets a proper, type-specific description, and clicking a line highlights that piece in the Modeling window.

Category: Display | Add menu: Display > Inspect

Inputs

• Data (any): the value to display as text.

What it shows

Inspect adapts its read-out to whatever kind of value arrives, single value or list:

• Number: the value, plainly formatted.
• Boolean: true or false.
• String: the text in quotes, or (empty string).
• Point: each point's (x, y) coordinates, one per line. A multi-point value also gets a bounding-box summary line.
• Curve: each contour as closed/open | segment count | length, and each ray as its start point. An infinite construction line reads infinite line and is excluded from the summary's total length. The summary totals contour count, segment count, and total length.
• Region: each contour as fill/hole | area | curve count, and a nested list reads as nested rather than flat - see Nesting and names below. The summary totals net area, gross area and hole count, plus a count of what is in the list.
• Color: hex plus rgb(...), with an α percentage appended whenever the color isn't fully opaque.
• Image: pixel dimensions and opacity percentage; the summary gives its world-space bounds.
• Dimension: each dimension's type and measured value (a length, an angle in degrees, or a radius/diameter). A multi-dimension value gets a count in its summary.
• Field (what Image Sample outputs): its sample resolution; the summary gives its world-space bounds where a preview is available.
• Empty (nothing wired, or an empty result): a dash.

Nesting and names

A list of regions is read out the way it is built, not flattened into one run.

• A group inside a group reads as nested, one line per level, each indented under the one above, so the read-out mirrors the Layers tree. A two-deep reference used to print exactly like a flat one, which is how structure went unnoticed.
• Each level carries its name in parentheses, as the Layers panel shows it.
• A bucket counts as a group only when it holds more than one region. A single shape is listed as the shape it is, under its own name, rather than as a folder with one thing in it. A top-level entry holding one region is that shape promoted, not a group of one.

Two kinds of name, and which one survives

This is worth knowing before you go looking for a name that is no longer there.

• A shape's name rides with the shape. It is carried on the geometry, so it survives any amount of flattening.
• A folder's name is keyed to its branch, and goes when that branch goes. Flatten takes branches off, so folder names go with them while shape names stay.
• Names only come from the model window. A list built entirely in the node graph never had names to show, and reads unnamed.
• Where the parts of one region disagree about their name, an outer and its holes carrying different ones, the row stays unnamed rather than picking a winner.

What the summary counts

When something is nested, the summary reads items, then regions. The first is how many entries sit at the top level; the second is every region in the whole payload, however deep. The two numbers differ exactly when something is nested, which makes the pair a quick way to tell that a list has structure you have not spotted.

When nothing is nested there is no distinction to draw, and the summary gives a single group count instead.

Either way it then gives net area, gross area and hole count.

Lists

Wire in a list and Inspect numbers each element on its own line. When every element shares a type, a summary block below totals them - numbers get min/max/sum/mean, booleans get a true/false split, other types get a count. A list that mixes types is flagged mixed, and each line is labeled with its own element's type.

Click to highlight

Click a line in the Inspect node's body to highlight that specific piece of geometry in the Modeling window - one point out of a list, a single contour of a multi-contour curve, one region, one dimension out of several, or one whole list element. This only ghosts geometry-carrying data (points, curves, regions, dimensions, images); a scalar, color, or field line has nothing to highlight.

The highlight is always drawn in blue, whatever style the geometry carries - a Style node upstream never recolors it, so it stays easy to spot. Only a Preview node shows geometry in its styled look.

With a line selected, the Up and Down arrow keys step the highlight to the previous or next line. The read-out scrolls to keep the selected line in view, and the highlight in the Modeling window moves with it. Hold Shift with Up or Down to extend the selection a line at a time from the line you started on; step back the other way and the selection shrinks again. The arrows act on Inspect only while one of them holds a line selection - if several do, the Inspect node that is itself selected takes the keys.

Outputs

See the description above.

< Previous: Realize | Next: Working with clusters >