Spaghetti Node Fix

A Blender add-on that tidies a tangled node tree from left to right with one shortcut and routes the links with reroutes so they cross as little as possible. Works in Geometry Nodes, Shader and Compositor.

Requirements

• Blender 4.2 LTS – 5.2 LTS (Windows)

Installation

1. Open Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions.
2. Open the menu at the upper right and choose Install from Disk.
3. Select node_fix-.zip without unpacking it.
4. In Preferences > Add-ons, check that Spaghetti Node Fix is enabled.

Press N in a node editor and open the Spaghetti Node Fix tab of the sidebar.

Features

One-Key Tidy

Press Alt+Space to tidy the whole tree from left to right

Steps: Alt+Space in the node editor > Tidy in the dialog

Links are rerouted with reroutes. Ctrl+Z undoes it

Frames Kept

Each node stays in its frame, and frames are moved so they do not overlap

Steps: Alt+Space

After tidying, frames shrink to fit their contents

Three Tree Types

Works in Geometry Nodes, Shader (material, World, light) and Compositor trees

Steps: Alt+Space

After arranging, the vertical order is adjusted to reduce crossings

Shortcut Switch

Turn the shortcut on or off with the switch in the sidebar

Steps: N > Spaghetti Node Fix tab > Shortcut

Change the key under Keymap in Preferences

Layout and Comparisons

Choose the layout improvements (Improve layout) and how many orders are compared

Steps: N > Spaghetti Node Fix tab

Fewer comparisons can be faster but may leave more crossings (Settings in the guide says when they apply)

First steps

Tidy a tree (Tidy Nodes)

Open the tree, press Alt+Space and press Tidy in the confirmation dialog.

1. Alt+Space in the node editor
2. Tidy Nodes in the sidebar
3. Node > Tidy Nodes in the menu

The whole tree being edited is tidied. There is no option to tidy only the selected nodes.

While it runs, progress appears in the center of the node editor. The status bar then shows the numbers of columns, reroutes, crossings, frame overlaps and unresolved pairs.

Ctrl+Z undoes it.

Confirmation dialog

Before tidying, a dialog explains what changes: links are rerouted (reroutes this add-on made before may be reused; muted input boundaries that decide a value are kept), Group Input nodes are rebuilt, split one for each node that uses them, and frames may move so they do not overlap.

Turn on "Don't show this again" and press Tidy to skip it next time. Turn "Confirm before tidying" back on in Preferences to show it again.

How it arranges

Frames

Each node stays in its frame. Frames move down with their contents so they do not overlap.

Frames that contain nodes of the main flow (the top row) are not moved. Pairs that cannot be separated by moving down are counted as "unresolved pairs" in the status bar.

After tidying, frames shrink to fit their contents.

Fewer crossings (Shader and Compositor)

After arranging, the vertical order in each column is changed and the links routed again, and the order with fewer crossings is chosen.

An order where a link passes over a node is never chosen. Trees with more than 250 nodes skip this step to stay fast.

In trees with frames, nodes of the same frame are kept together, and the order is chosen by weighing crossings against the total height: a much more compact order may be used even with a couple more crossings. Nodes inside a frame are also stacked closer, so frames stay short and do not push each other far down.

Improve layout

"Improve layout" (on by default) applies to Geometry Nodes, Shader and Compositor trees. It stacks nodes in a column closer, lets links into the same socket meet directly and lets vertical reroute lines between two columns share a position. In Geometry Nodes it also reorders nodes to reduce crossings. Shader trees are not stacked closer, because their tall nodes would make more links cross.

Turn it off for the layout of the original script in Geometry Nodes. What keeps values intact still applies when it is off: muted input boundaries that decide a value are kept and laid out, which can add nodes or columns, and link mutes and the order of multi-input links are kept. In Shader and Compositor trees, turning it off keeps only the crossing reduction.

Settings

Changing the shortcut

The default is Alt+Space. Change it under Keymap in Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Spaghetti Node Fix.

To not use the shortcut, turn the Shortcut switch off in the sidebar or in Preferences.

On Windows, Alt+Space also opens the window menu. If it does not work, use another key.

Comparisons

Setting	Default	What it does
Crossing trials	12	How many orders are tried when reducing crossings
Frame stacking orders	3	How many frame stacking orders are tried

When the comparisons apply

Crossing trials applies only to trees that get crossing reduction (Shader, Compositor, and Geometry Nodes with Improve layout on) with 250 nodes or fewer. Larger trees skip that step, so it has no effect.

Frame stacking orders applies only to trees with frames. In trees with frames and more than 250 nodes it still limits the candidates, so the layout can change, but only the shortest candidate is routed, so it saves little time.

The defaults give the results described above. Fewer can be faster but may leave more crossings or reroutes.

Tidy Parameters (Preferences)

Setting	Default	What it does
Column gap	60	Minimum gap between columns
Row gap	150	Minimum gap between stacked nodes
Small node gap	40	Gap for nodes without inputs (such as Group Input) and between siblings
Move threshold	250	A pushed-out small input node farther than this moves to a new column
Column gap (no trunk)	60	Gap between columns with no vertical reroute lines (the larger of this and Column gap is used)
Route to node margin	40	Space between a route and a node
Route spacing	60	Space between routes running side by side
Column stretch step	40	When a direct link hits a node, the gap is widened by this much at a time
Column stretch limit	120	The most the gap is widened; beyond it the link is rerouted
Trunk fan-out	3	Links splitting from one output into this many or more branch from a reroute trunk
Frame gap	40	Minimum gap between frames

Where they are

They are under "Tidy Parameters" in Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Spaghetti Node Fix (the sidebar shows only the comparisons). Values are in node editor units. The defaults are those of the original script.

FAQ

Known limitations

Node heights and socket positions are estimated with formulas that follow Blender's drawing, so the result can look slightly off in these cases:

In Blender 5.x, a node with a collapsed panel is estimated taller than it is (the safe side for overlaps); links into inputs inside that panel may look offset in height.

In Blender 4.2, some nodes (such as Resample Curve) may be estimated smaller than they are.

Collapsed (hidden) nodes are estimated at their expanded height.

Shader previews are drawn above the node, so they may appear to overlap the node above.

In the Compositor, most nodes have image (color) sockets, so the main flow tends to get long, and frames on the main flow may look close to each other (they do not overlap).

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Questions and bug reports: send a message from this product page. We aim to reply within one week.