Save operator templates, promote parameters by dragging, map MIDI and OSC, and navigate your networks with shortcuts. FNSTools is a collection of TouchDesigner tools you can install individually.
Most tools are free and MIT licensed. Tools that unlock with Patreon are marked Patreon.
Drag a parameter onto a component to promote it.
Read the instructions →Save an operator template and bring it into another network.
Read the instructions →Bookmark a network location and jump back to it.
Read the instructions →86 packages, each installing on its own. Core goes in as a unit; everything else is optional. Open a category to see what is inside, or search every feature to find a tool by what it does.
Every package has its own page, and the docs are searchable, open the documentation →
One container goes into your project, you pick the tools from there, and only those get downloaded. Start from a download or from the picker on this site; either way, the updater keeps it current.
Drag FNSTools.tox into the root of a project. It is about 150 KB and
arrives empty: the container you drop is where your tools will live.
Then pulse Pick Tools and the picker opens inside TouchDesigner. Browse by category, follow any card through to its docs, and review the plan before anything is written to your project.
DownloadIt downloads exactly the packages you ticked, plus the core registries they need, and verifies every file against the release manifest with sha256 before anything is installed.
Nothing else is written.
On the very first run it fetches the catalogue before it can show you anything, and says so while it does.
The same picker is on this site. Tick your tools, copy the one line it gives you, and paste it into the Textport of an open project.
No download: the line fetches the container and your picks together and places the container in your project for you.
Choose tools online →It carries only the names you ticked. Release, URLs and hashes are read from the published manifest at paste time, so a line you copied earlier still installs the current release.
It fetches the core registries, your selection and the container, verifies every file with sha256 before writing anything, then loads the container into the network you are in and hands it the selection to install.
Each package carries its own version, and the updater compares it against the published one. Update the tools you use, leave the rest alone, and keep your settings across the swap.
How updates workPreferences go into one aggregated JSON in your user palette, outside the project file, so the way you set a tool up follows you into the next project, and survives the next update.
MIDI and OSC maps are the deliberate exception: they save into the project folder, so they travel with the show.
Settings are preserved when a package is replaced. And the registries are promoted masters you can clone, so your own tools can sit on the toolbar, nav bar or OP menu too. How settings persistence works →
Save the project and set it as your startup file in
Preferences → General → Startup File Mode. Every new project then opens
with your tools already in it.
Clipboard image paste is not available on macOS. Where the docs
say Alt, press Cmd. Exceptions are called out per tool.
Alt-right-click (or Alt-middle-click) any toolbar icon to
open that tool's page on this site. Option on macOS.
Browse all 86 packages by category, read what each one does, and tick the ones you want. You get a single line to paste into the Textport. It installs that selection and nothing else.
Most tools are free and MIT licensed, including for commercial work. No account is needed.
Tools marked Patreon unlock with a Patreon membership at the tier each tool names (Base, Pro or Coaching) or a Gumroad licence key. Install and update them through the same picker.
See the Patreon tools and licence details →A full walkthrough with the TouchDesigner team on InSession. Recorded on an earlier release; some interfaces have changed.
Find setup instructions, shortcuts and examples for each tool. Search the docs or start with one of these:
Patreon memberships help fund development and unlock the Patreon tools. For questions, join the Discord. For bugs, open a GitHub issue.
Project management and MIDI mapping, available separately.
9 tools by other creators that pair well with FNSTools, made and maintained by them.
FNSTools is made by Dan Molnar, a Berlin-based artist and developer working as Function Store, with a few community contributors credited below. More are welcome, on GitHub or Discord. The tools grew out of building installations and live systems in TouchDesigner; the rest of that work is on his portfolio site.
FNSTools includes open-source tools and code I adopted and adapted for this toolkit. These are their original authors, along with people who helped test it.
I also learned a lot from reading these components.
by PlusPlusOneGmbHThe palette search bar that is hard to work without once you have it, based on TD-SearchPalette.
based on the work of Yea ChenThe OP Create dialog filters, and the software all of this sits on.
by Greg HermanovicPaste an image straight into a network.
by DotSimulate and Lake HeckamanFind operators in the OP Create dialog by their initials.
by DotSimulateBookmark spots in a project and jump straight back to them.
by Alex GuevaraA bar above every operator showing its cook time and GPU memory, from cook_bar.
by Anton HeestandThe people who used all of this while it was still sharp around the edges.
by Acrylicode and kim0slice