The Slim Window
The Slim Window
The majority of the operations you perform in Slim will be in one window:
This window is divided into three main sections:
These views all work together to provide increasing levels of detail: The Palette View displays all of your active palettes and their contents. The Network View displays how appearances in those palettes combine to form shaders. The Appearance View displays parameters and a preview for a specific appearance within a network.
These views are window panes, and their relative size can be changed by dragging the mullions (or "sashes") between them. The entire window itself can be resized as well.
Menus
Slim can be invoked in different modes. Some of the menu items described below are not always visible, depending on whether Slim is invoked in client or standalone mode.
File Menu
The File menu contains functions related to reading and writing files.
- New Palette
- Create a new palette file and set it as the current palette
- Open Palette
- Open an existing palette file and set it as the current palette
- Externalize Palette
- Make the palette "external", saving it to disk and enabling it to be imported by another scene/session
- Save Palette As...
- Save the current palette to a new filename
- Remove Palette (when working with a session / scene file)
- Remove the current palette from the existing session / scene file
- Internalize Palette
- Make an imported external palette "internal" to the current scene/session
- Save Session
- Save the current session file
- Checkpoint Session
- Writes the current state of the session
- Restore Session
- Revert the current session to the most recently-saved version
- Import Appearance...
- Import an appearance or shader from a file
- Export Appearance...
- Export an appearance to a file
- Reload Template
- Reload the template or shader for the current appearance
- Upgrade Template
- Upgrade the template for the current appearance. This might be necessary if you have loaded a palette with templates from a previous version of Slim.
- Quit
- Quit Slim
Edit Menu
The Edit menu contains commands related to editing:
- Undo
- Undo the last action performed
- Redo
- Redo the last action undone
- Cut/Copy/Paste
- Cuts, copies, or pastes a selected Slim node
- Paste as Instance
- Pastes a copied Slim node as an Instance
- Select All
- Select all appearances in the current palette
- Delete
- Delete the selected appearance(s)
- Revert Values
- Revert all of the parameter values for the selected appearance to their defaults
- Preserve Values
- Freeze all of the current parameter values for the selected appearance. This will protect those values from any changes to the values in the appearance's source.
Palette Menu
The Palette menu provides commands that operate on the current palette.
- New Subpalette
- Create a new subpalette in the current palette. You can drag/drop appearances and other subpalettes into and out of this subpalette.
- New Smart Palette
- Create a new smart palette within the current palette. This will open the Smart Palette Editor, enabling you to select the criteria for your new smart palette.
- Edit Library Palette
- Edit the contents of a selected Library Palette
- Close Package
- Close the current package
- Saved Icon Settings
- Change the settings for saving icons in the current palette: The first set of radio buttons controls which appearances within the palette will have their icons saved. The second set controls the resolution of those icons. Saving icons within a palette increases its file size, which can affect the speed at which the palette is loaded.
- Uniqueify All
- Reassign the unique identifiers for all nodes within the palette. This is necessary after copying a palette file to make sure its identifiers do not conflict with those in the original.
- Delete Disconnected
- Delete any non-attachable appearances that aren't connected to any attachable appearances.
Appearance Menu
The Appearance menu contains commands related to the current appearance. This menu is also accessible by right-clicking on an appearance in the Network View.
- Attach as surface/coshader
- Attach the selected appearance to the object picked in Maya, either as a primary surface/light shader, or as a co-shader
- Attach Prefs >
- Select whether to attach Slim nodes to shape nodes or the Master Layer
- Detach
- Detach the selected appearance from the object picked in Maya
- Add to Scene
- Add the selected shader to the current scene
- Select Attached
- Pick the objects in Maya that have the selected appearance attached
- Delete
- Delete the selected appearance. Not that this can be undone.
- Duplicate
- Duplicate the selected appearance
- Duplicate Network
- Duplicate the selected appearance and all upstream appearances
- Create Node Instance
- Create an Instance of the selected appearance
- Create Network Instance
- Create an
- Create Shader Instance
- Create a Shader Instance of the selected appearance
- Package
- Enclose the selected appearances in a Package
- Unpackage
- Extract the contents of the selected package and delete it
- Show Package Contents
- Show the contents of the selected package
- Publish Output
- Allows the user to expose the output of node within a package
- Remove Output
- "Un-publishes" a published output
- Render Scene
- Render the associated Maya scene. Note that this is only relevant when Slim is in client mode.
- Render Icon
- Render the preview swatch for the selected appearance
- Render Flipbook
- Render a flipbook for the current appearance
- Create PSet from Network
- Creates a Parameter Set that includes all the external parameters in the selected network.
- Create PSet from Node
- Creates a Parameter Set that includes the external parameters in the selected node.
Commands Menu
The Commands menu lists a set of procedures that can be customized and configured. Information on creating these commands is available in the Scripting documentation.
By default, a few commands are available for the current palette:
Functions >
- Recompile/Compile Selection
Recompile the selected Slim shader
- Recompile All
Recompile all of the shaders in the current palette.
Resources >
- GenerateReport
Generate a verbose report providing copious amounts of data. This report enumerates external resources and reports warnings. The report is printed to the Slim Message Logger.
- GenerateReport (Short)
Generate a short version of the above report enumerating warnings. The report is printed to the Slim Message Logger.
- String Search & Replace
A general search and replace command. The procedure used by this command is also accessible from the scripting environment using the ::Slim::SearchReplace procedure.
Templates >
- Instance All
Instantiate each of the current templates. This can be useful procedure for testing your set of templates.
- Upgrade AOV Templates
Updates legacy templates for compatibility
View Menu
The View menu controls visibility of various elements in Slim.
- Palette View Mode
- Toggle the Palette View between Browse and Create mode.
- Show Network View
- Toggle the visibility of the Network View.
- Show Template Icons
- Toggle between appearance swatches and template icons in the node representations.
- Maximize Network View
- Maximize the Network View by temporarily hiding the Palette View.
- Two-Column View
- Arrange the Slim Window in a Two-Column View.
- Three-Column View
- Arrange the Slim Window in a Three-Column View (the default).
- Swap Attribute Editor Side
- Move the Appearance View (a.k.a. the Attribute Editor) from left to right, and vice versa.
- Show Appearance Notes
- Toggle the visibility of notes within the Appearance View.
- Show Appearance Tags
- Toggle the visibility of tags within the Appearance View.
- SL Source (Only with Expert Menus enabled)
- Display the shading language source for the selected appearance in your default text editor.
- Slim Source (Only with Expert Menus enabled)
- Open the Slim source for the selected appearance in a text editor. This is how the appearance will be written into the palette file. Any changes made and saved in the text editor will be incorporated back into the appearance after you close the editor.
Window Menu
The Window menu gives you access to all of the other windows of Slim. The menu items are followed by a list of windows for any appearances that are being edited in a separate window (if any).
- PSet Style Sheets
- Open the editor for PSet Style Sheets
- Workspace Editor
- Open the Workspace Editor
- Message Log
- Open the Message Log
- Console
- Open the Slim Scripting console
- Preferences
- Open the Preferences editor
Help Menu
The Help menu contains an About Slim command that displays build and version information as well as links to this documentation and the RenderMan forums.
Because this menu can be customized, you may find additional links to documentation specific to your studio.
Two-Column View
With the Network View visible, the Palette View and Network View can also be arranged in a "Two-Column" View. Depending on your palette, networks, and monitor, you may find this arrangement a better use of space. It can be selected from the View Menu.