This week’s Quick Dev Tip is about efficiently manipulating connection lines and is something that everyone who uses blueprints should know. I use these first two all the time when I am working in blueprints.

The most well-known way to break a connection line is to right-click on an execution pin and use the “Break Link To “ option as shown below.

However, a much quicker way is to use a keyboard shortcut instead. If you hold Alt + left click on the pin that you want to disconnect, it will break the connection. This is a much more efficient way.

Another commonly performed action is needing to move a connection line from one pin to another. The most obvious way to do this is to break a connection and then re-drag it out to where you want to go. But this is a long-winded way of doing it, instead, you can use a keyboard shortcut. Holding ctrl while clicking and holding left-click on a pin will allow you to drag it around. Making it simple to reposition where you want it to connect to without having to drag it from the source again.

The last tip I have is one that I don’t use a lot if I am honest but can come in handy in situations where you have a complex or messy event graph and you are struggling to see where something is connected to. If something is connected to a pin you can right-click on the pin and will see the option “Jump to”.

What this is going to do is move your screen to focus on the node which is directly connected to the pin you selected, in this case, the branch in the lower portion of the screen. In this example, it isn’t so useful because you can clearly see and follow the connection line from the sequence to the branch node.

However, it becomes much more useful in a situation like below where things are intersecting, overlapping and less easy to read.

If you want more tips and tricks make sure to give me a follow on Twitter @cbGameDev

Also, check out the parkour game I'm solo developing called Freerunners. Give it a wishlist if you like the way it looks!: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430330/Freerunners/