Geometry & 3D node
Mesh
One mesh inside a 3D Scene: cable a Geometry in, place it, and say what it is made of. Roughness and Metallic shade it; Emission makes it glow regardless of the light. Position and rotation here move the mesh in the SCENE and leave the geometry itself untouched — use Geometry Transform when you want the change to reach raycasts and point sampling too. Casts Shadows says whether this mesh BLOCKS light — light only stops at what the shadow maps drew, so turn it off and a light behind this mesh shines straight through.
Inputs
| Port | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| GeometryThe mesh to draw — cable a Geometry, Transform, Combine or any other geometry output. | structure | — |
| MaterialA Material node's surface — cable one in and it overrides this Mesh's own Color, Roughness, Metallic and Emission. One Material can feed several Meshes: one surface, edited in one place. | structure | — |
| TextureAn albedo map: any image output — a generator, an Image node, an imported model's own Albedo — painted over the surface by the geometry's UVs, multiplied with Color (leave Color white for the texture as-is). A cabled Material's texture overrides this one. | image | — |
| Normal MapA tangent-space normal map (the usual lavender kind): the surface catches light as if sculpted, with no extra geometry. Works on any mesh — no tangents are needed, the shader derives them. | image | — |
| EnableOff leaves this mesh out of the scene; the others carry on. | bool | true |
| ColorBase colour. On a metallic surface this becomes the colour of the reflection rather than of the paint, which is why gold looks like gold and not like yellow plastic. | color | (0.85, 0.85, 0.88, 1) |
| RoughnessHow diffuse the surface is. Low is a sharp mirror-like highlight, high is soft and matte. Never quite 0, because a perfect mirror has a highlight of zero width and nothing to see. | float | 0.45 |
| MetallicMetal or not. Metals have no diffuse colour — all their colour comes from the reflection — so this changes the character of the material, not just its shininess. Values in between are for dust and wear rather than for a mixture. | float | 0 |
| EmissionMakes the surface glow on its own, regardless of the light. Useful for screens, neon and anything that should stay visible in shadow. | float | 0 |
| WireframeDraws the edges instead of the faces — the fastest way to see what a mesh is actually made of. | bool | false |
| Casts ShadowsWhether this mesh BLOCKS light. Light only stops at what the shadow maps drew — off, and a light behind this mesh shines straight through it onto whatever stands beyond. Sidedness doesn't matter: the shadow pass draws both faces, so a one-sided plane blocks from either side. | bool | true |
| Catch ShadowsWhether this mesh RECEIVES shadows in the scene's Shadow Mask and Shadows outputs — the compositor's shadow-catcher switch. Turn it off on a hero object and the passes stop showing its self-shadowing; a floor or wall left on catches the clean projected shadows. The beauty image is untouched by this. | bool | true |
| Position XMoves the mesh within the scene, in Grafit units. The mesh’s own geometry output is untouched — but the scene’s merged Geometry output DOES carry this placement, so a collider fed from the scene sees the mesh where the camera sees it. | float | 0 |
| Position YMoves the mesh up or down within the scene. | float | 0 |
| Position ZMoves the mesh toward or away from the camera within the scene. | float | 0 |
| Rotate XTurns the mesh within the scene, in degrees. Applied X, then Y, then Z. | float | 0 |
| Rotate YTurns the mesh around the vertical axis, in degrees. | float | 0 |
| Rotate ZRolls the mesh, in degrees. | float | 0 |
| ScaleUniform size within the scene. | float | 1 |
| Show GizmoPuts handles on the mesh's pivot in the render window: arrows move it, rings turn it about the pivot, ⌥+arrow moves only the pivot (the mesh stays), ⇧ snaps, Esc cancels. Off, the viewport never touches these values. | bool | false |
| Pivot XThe point the mesh turns and scales about, in the geometry's own units (0 = its origin). With no rotation and scale 1, changing it moves nothing — ⌥-drag the gizmo to place it by eye. | float | 0 |
| Pivot YPivot height in the geometry's own units: the point the mesh turns and scales about — a gondola's rope hook, a wing's shoulder. | float | 0 |
| Pivot ZPivot depth in the geometry's own units: the point the mesh turns and scales about. | float | 0 |
| ParentA Parent Transform the mesh hangs on: it moves, turns and scales with it, this node's own Position / Rotate / Scale on top. Chain Parent Transforms for a hierarchy. The gizmo stays off while a Parent is cabled. | structure | — |
| VisibleOff: the mesh is not drawn and casts no shadow, but keeps working — its Bounds, its Parent, its place in the scene's Geometry (colliders) and its gizmo stay. For a target or a collider nobody should see. | bool | true |
Outputs
| Port | Type |
|---|---|
| Vertex Count | int |
| Triangle Count | int |
| Bounds Min | structure |
| Bounds Max | structure |
How It Works
Mesh is one surface inside a 3D Scene: cable a Geometry in, place it, and say what it is made of. Roughness and Metallic shade it; Emission makes it glow regardless of the light. A Texture and a Normal Map can come from any image cable — a Live Shader driving the surface of a real mesh is one connection.
Position and rotation here move the mesh in the scene and leave the geometry itself untouched. Use Geometry Transform instead when the change must also reach raycasts, point sampling and colliders.
Two shadow switches, and they answer different questions. Casts Shadows says whether this mesh blocks light — light only stops at what the shadow maps drew, so turn it off and a light behind this mesh shines straight through. Catch Shadows says whether shadows may land on it.
A connected Material overrides the inline values, so several meshes can share one surface edited in one place.
Use Cases
- Render any geometry — The bridge from the Geometry family to a picture.
- Shader-driven surfaces — A Live Shader or a video into Texture.
- Glowing elements — Emission for light sources, screens and neon.
- Ground planes — Catch Shadows on, Casts Shadows off, for a floor that receives but does not block.
- Shared materials — One Material node into several Meshes.
Tips
- Wireframe is a genuine look as well as a debugging aid.
- A floor that casts shadows can shadow itself at grazing angles — turning Casts Shadows off on it is usually right.
- Normal maps are tangent-space; a map authored for another convention will light backwards.
- Scale here is uniform; for non-uniform scaling use Geometry Transform.
- The Mesh's own Color is ignored the moment a Material is connected — that is the intended override, not a bug.
Open Mesh in the interactive catalog →
Mesh is one of 381 nodes in Grafit Pro.
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