This is a set of tips that will simplify and speed up your rigging workflow in Node Editor.
Examples were done in Maya 2025 so your UI may differ if you’re using newer or older versions.

Tip 1 - How to get back Unit Conversion node?

In Maya 2024 and newer, when you connect attributes with different unit types, the Unit Conversion node is still created, but it’s not displayed by default — instead, you’ll only see a purple connection line.

How to make it visible again:

Go to Display → enable Unit Conversion Nodes.
If the connection was made earlier, the node won’t appear automatically.
Select the source node and click Output Connections — the Unit Conversion node will show up.

Note! This option must be enabled each time after restarting Maya, as unfortunately this setting is not saved. Waiting for a fix from Autodesk. Maybe they will fix it in future versions.

Tip 2 - How to quickly delete connections?

If you need to delete multiple connections, you can do it in the following way:

Alt + Shift + LMB drag to draw a line across all connections you want to delete
Release to delete all connections crossed by the line

Tip 3 - How to isolate connected nodes?

When a node has lots of connections and you only need to focus on a few:

Select the desired connection lines.
Hover over one of them until it highlights in white.
Hold RMB and choose Isolate Connected Nodes from the marking menu.

The same marking menu also includes two other useful options: Break Connection(s) and Select Connected Nodes

Tip 4 - How to isolate selected nodes?

When creating a setup, it is sometimes convenient to isolate the selected nodes.
To do this press Ctrl + /

You can also right-click on one of the selected nodes and in the Marking menu select Remove Stream Nodes > Remove Unselected.

Tip 5 -How to connect to the desired attribute?

For some nodes, like blendTwoAttr, dragging a connection to the master port (white circle) doesn’t show the list of available attributes. Instead, Maya automatically connects to the default input, such as attributesBlender.

To manually choose the connection:

Middle-drag from one node to another.
From the small menu, select the first menu item — this opens the Connection Editor.
In the Connection Editor, pick the desired output and input attributes.

You can also press the 4 key or click the corresponding button on the toolbar to show attributes from the custom attribute view.

Note! You can customize the list of attributes displayed for each node. To create a custom list of attributes, right-click the node and select Edit Custom Attribute List.

You can also display the entire list of available attributes by right-clicking on the node and selecting Show All Attributes in the marking menu.

Tip 6 - How do I add input or output connections to the current graph?

Hold Shift and click the input or output icon in the Node Editor toolbar to add connected nodes to your current graph.

Optional: You can enable Additive Graphing Mode in the Options menu to keep this behavior active permanently.
However, I don't like this mode. I prefer to turn it on with Shift only when I need it.

Tip 7 - How to quckly create nodes?

Instead of searching for the required node in the create node pane, it is better to use the interactive method:

Hover your cursor over the Node Editor and press TAB — a small search box appears.
Start typing the node name and Maya will show auto-complete suggestions.

Until you know the names of the nodes, you may find it difficult to use this method, but once you learn them, you will see how quickly you will be creating a node graph.

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