Tiny Custom Nodes Exporter (by MoxTools)

A lightweight Blender extension/add-on that allows technical artists and developers to export any Shader Node Group into a standalone, fully installable Blender add-on (.py).

The Problem It Solves

In Blender, standard Node Groups cannot natively expose Image Texture blocks as dynamic inputs on the outside of the group container. If you share a material asset, users have to tab inside the group just to change a texture.

Tiny Custom Nodes Exporter solves this by wrapping your group into a custom ShaderNodeCustomGroup python class and automatically injecting a native UI PointerProperty for your textures directly onto the node container.

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📸 Visual Guide (Screenshots)

1. Exporting a Node Group

Simply right-click any Node Group container in the Shader Editor and select Export as Custom Node....

2. Setting Up Textures Natively

The generated add-on automatically exposes texture slots directly on the node's custom layout—no tabbing inside required!

🚀 Features

• One-Click Export: Instantly turn any active node tree into an installation-ready Python script.
• Dynamic Texture Pointers: Automatically detects internal TEX_IMAGE nodes and exposes clean UI fields for quick image assignment.
• Collision-Free Menu Integration: Safely registers generated nodes into a shared Shift+A > Custom Nodes menu without breaking or overriding other add-ons.
• Memory Safe: Automatically flushes generated internal node groups from Blender's data cache once the node instance is deleted (free()).

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🛠 Compatibility & Requirements

• Developed & Tested with: Blender 5.1.2
• Architecture: Built on the modern node_tree.interface API (introduced in Blender 4.0).
• Not Compatible with: Blender 3.x or older.

⚠️ Disclaimer: This tool is provided as-is and was exclusively tested on Blender 5.1.2. If you happen to run it on older Blender 4.x versions or other 5.x sub-versions, feel free to drop a comment or discussion note letting the community know if it worked out-of-the-box or not!

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📦 Installation

1. Download the tiny_custom_nodes_exporter.py from the latest Releases page.
2. In Blender, go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.
3. Click Install... in the top right corner, select the downloaded .py file, and enable the add-on.

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📖 Usage Workflow

1. Open the Shader Editor and select or create a Node Group.
2. Right-click the Node Group container.
3. Select Export '{Your_Node_Group_Name}' as Custom Node... from the bottom of the context menu.
4. Choose a target file path. The exporter will automatically default to customnode_<name>.py.
5. Install the newly generated .py file as a separate, standalone add-on.
6. You can now find your fully wrapped node under Shift+A > Custom Nodes in any shader tree!

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💡 Limitations & Important Notes

• Global Texture Assignment: The exporter currently assigns the selected texture pointer to all internal image texture nodes found inside the group wrapper. Ensure your nodes are structured accordingly.

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📝 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.