Tidebone Utility Kit – Pipes, Scaffolding, Cable Trays, Railings

Version 1.0

Four Geometry Nodes generators for industrial and construction scenes, built entirely procedurally. Put a modifier on a curve (or any object for the scaffold) and get:

Four procedural materials (painted metal with rust and chipping, steel, insulation, accent, timber, tarp, cable, glass) are included and driven by the same Rust and Color inputs. Nothing is baked, no add-on, no image textures.

Requirements

• Blender 4.2 LTS or newer. Tested headless with 4.2.23 LTS, 4.5.14 LTS and 5.2.1 LTS: 40 parameter cases each, 0 errors, 0 node warnings. Vertex and face counts are identical in all three versions, with one exception: NURBS curves evaluate with a different resolution in 5.2 (see Limitations).
• Units: metres. Rendered and checked in Cycles (CPU); EEVEE and the Blender GUI were not tested.

Files

Installation

Asset Browser (recommended): Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Asset Libraries → + → the folder with the .blend. Drag a group onto an object.

Append: File > Append → tidebone_utility_kit.blend → NodeTree → pick a group, then add a Geometry Nodes modifier to an object and select it.

Quick start

• Pipe Run / Cable Tray / Railing: add a curve (poly spline is best; Add > Curve > Path or draw with the Curve tool, or convert edges with Mesh to Curve), add the modifier, choose the group. Move curve points to route the run. Corner Radius rounds poly corners.
• Scaffold: add any object (a single vertex is enough), add the modifier. Bays X/Y, Levels, Bay Width/Depth/Height set the size; the outputs tell you tube length and deck area.
• Pick menus (Supports, Deck, Guard Rails, Diagonals, Tarp, Style, Mode) and move Rust.
• Turn on Realize before Apply or export.

Inputs (summary)

Pipe Run: Pipe Radius · Pipe Count + Run Offset · Corner Radius + Elbow Segments · Pipe Sides · Flanges (End Flanges, Flange Spacing, Bolts) · Supports (None/Hangers/Stands) + Support Spacing, Hanger Length, Floor Level · Insulation (thickness) · Valve Spacing · Color, Rust, Seed.

Scaffold: Bays X/Y · Levels · Bay Width/Depth · Level Height · Tube Radius · Deck (None/Top/Every Level), Boards per Bay, Board Gap · Guard Rails (None/Top/Every Level), Guard Height, Toe Boards · Diagonals (None/Long Faces/All Faces), Couplers, Base Plates · Tarp (None/Front/Front+Back/All Sides), Tarp Holes, Tarp Billow · Tarp Color, Tube Color, Rust, Seed · Keep Input Mesh.

Cable Tray: Mode (Tray/Hanging Cables) · Tray Style (Ladder/Trough) · Tray Width/Height, Sheet Thickness, Rung Spacing · Corner Radius · Supports (None/Hangers/Stands/Wall Brackets) + Support Spacing, Hanger Length, Floor Level · Cable Count (0–48), Cable Radius, Sag · Cable Color, Tray Color, Rust.

Railing: Style (Pipe Rails/Balusters/Glass Panel/Cable) · Height · Corner Radius · Post Placement (Even Spacing / At Curve Points), Max Post Spacing, Post Radius, Base Plates · Rail Radius, Mid Rails, Timber Handrail, Toe Board · Baluster Spacing/Radius · Cables · Glass Thickness · Color, Rust.

Outputs (for your own node setups)

Pipe Run: Length, Flange Count, Support Count, Valve Count · Scaffold: Height, Length, Depth, Tube Length, Deck Area, Post Count · Cable Tray: Length, Support Count, Cable Length · Railing: Length, Post Count, Baluster Count.

Attributes (for your own shaders)

tu_color (point colour) and tu_rust (0–1) are written on all parts; tb_axis (0 x, 1 y, 2 z) gives the grain/brushing direction of long parts; tu_cable (cable index) is on cables.

Polycount guide (measured, Detail = default, Blender 4.2, realized)

Instances keep the numbers low while you work; the table is the realized mesh. Cable bundles and dense options (48 cables, 10×3×6 scaffold with tarp) are the heavy cases. Not a game-ready asset: apply, decimate or bake for real-time.

Tips

• Several pieces, one look: same Color, different Seed and Rust.
• Parallel runs: Pipe Count + Run Offset (e.g. (0, 0, -0.42) for stacked pipes).
• Hangers need something to hang from – place a beam or ceiling at Hanger Length above the pipe (see the demo scene).
• The scaffold is not a structural design tool; the dimensions follow common tube-and-coupler sizes (48.3 mm tube) but are not an engineering check. The railing's 12 cm baluster gap is a modelling helper, not a code check.

Known limitations (v1.0)

• Corner rounding and fillets work on poly curves. Bezier and NURBS curves are followed as they are; NURBS curves evaluate with a different resolution in Blender 5.2 than in 4.2/4.5 (so mesh counts differ for NURBS only).
• The pipe elbows are swept tubes, not fitted pipe-fitting standard parts (no T-junctions, reducers or branches).
• The scaffold is a rectangular grid (no stair towers, no L-shapes), tarps are flat sheets with noise billow, not cloth simulation.
• Cable Tray: a cable bundle follows the whole curve with one sag profile; the tray profile's "up" is world Z (no banking).
• Railing posts stand vertically on the curve plane; there is no stair/slope mode (use Altbau Stairs for stairs).
• Cycles only; EEVEE and GUI not tested. No Quest/real-time optimisation.

Changelog

• 1.0 – Pipe Run, Scaffold, Cable Tray, Railing, 8 materials, asset catalog, demo scene.

License

Use it in any personal or commercial project, royalty-free; do not resell or redistribute the asset itself. Personal license = one person; Studio license = one studio (up to 10 seats).

© 2026 Tidebone