GN Instance Grid

A runnable example that builds a generative Geometry Nodes tree — Mesh Grid → Instance on Points → Realize Instances → Transform → Set Shade Smooth → Set Material — and attaches it as a NODES modifier, following the geometry-nodes-python skill. The tree has no Group Input: the grid lives inside the node group, and the instance is a modeled DSA-profile keycap read in through an Object Info node (original transform space). The realized grid is the key field of a 3x3 macropad.

What it witnesses: instancing is not free geometry until you realize it. The check asserts the closed-form evaluated topology — verts = grid points × keycap verts (9 × 121 = 1089), faces = 9 × 121 = 1089 — where the keycap counts come from its construction parameters (six rounded-rectangle rings of 4 × (4 + 1) = 20 verts, plus the dish centre; five ring-to-ring quad bands, a 20-triangle dish fan and one bottom n-gon), not from measuring the mesh. It also asserts that the (+x, +y) corner cell holds exactly one keycap, centred on its closed-form grid point with its foot at the Transform lift, that Set Material carries Keycap.PBT, and that a second Set Material, selected by a per-face position field, puts Keycap.Accent on exactly one keycap at the front-right grid point. If Realize Instances is bypassed, the evaluated mesh is empty and the count gate fails.

What the render shows: nine identical keycaps, one per grid point, seated on switch housings in the recessed well of an anodized case, and the one orange "enter" key the position-field selection picked out. The count gate is numeric: an unrealized grid renders the same keycaps, because the renderer draws instances either way. What does show is the grid itself — --one-cell renders a single keycap in the centre of an empty well — and where the accent selection landed. The knob, OLED, case and switch housings are render-only staging built in bmesh; only the key field comes from the tree.

Run#

# Cheap correctness check (no render) — the CI check:
blender --background --python gn_instance_grid.py --

# Falsifier: 1×1 grid. Must exit non-zero (4: eight keycaps missing).
blender --background --python gn_instance_grid.py -- --one-cell

# Also render a still (EEVEE on a GPU host; use --engine cycles on GPU-less hosts):
blender --background --python gn_instance_grid.py -- --output grid.png
blender --background --python gn_instance_grid.py -- --output grid.png --engine cycles

Exit codes#

Per-script sequential checks. 9 is a valid check code; there is no rule against it.

The blender-smoke workflow runs the check on Blender 5.2 LTS and 4.5 LTS (5.1 on the weekly cron, the needs-5.1 PR label, or manual dispatch). Smoke does not pass --output. Its catalog falsifier is --one-cell (expects exit 4).