You can add nodes to the render tree in a variety of ways:
Drag a node from the preset manager at the left of the render tree (or from a floating Preset Manager with Shaders selected). This is the easiest way to see most of the shaders that are available.
If you don't see the shader you want, you can type its name in the Search text box. You can press Ctrl+F to quickly put the cursor in the preset manager's text box so that you can start typing a search string.
In the preset manager, you will notice that shaders are categorized by function and type. For example, the texturing shaders are under the Texture heading, convertors are under Conversion, and so on.
For more information about using the preset manager, see The Preset Manager [Interface and Tools].
For more information on the shader categories and the shaders themselves, see The Shader Library and the Shader Reference.
Select a shader from the Nodes menu on the render tree toolbar. The shaders are organized in the same way as they are in the preset manager. If you don't see the shader you want, select More from any of the Nodes menus to open a browser in which you can search for more shaders.
Use the Material Manager (press Ctrl+7) to create and add materials from different libraries and connect them in its embedded render tree view. See The Material Manager for information.
From the Preset Manager with Materials selected, you can drag a material preset into the render tree. It adds the material's shader tree into the workspace without connecting it to the object's current Material node. You can then connect it as you like.
Drag a shader preset, material preset, or compound file from a Softimage file browser or a folder window of your operating system into the render tree.
Drag a shader preset from a Netview window into the render tree to add it to the workspace. You can then connect it to the desired material or shader ports. See Netview [Interface and Tools] for information.
Drag a shader preset from a Netview window onto an object to apply the shader to the object's standard Material ports.
Drag a shader compound (.xsirtcompound file) from a Netview window into the render tree to add it to the workspace. You can then connect it to the desired material or shader ports. See Shader Compounds for information.
Choose Compounds 
Import Shader Compound on the render tree toolbar to select an .xsirtcompound file.
Often when working in the render tree, you'll want a quick way to load image clips to use as textures, backgrounds, or bump maps.
Open the Clips menu on the render tree command bar to display a list of all your project's image clips.
Select a clip to make it appear in the render tree work area.
If you'd like to display thumbnails of your image clips, choose Show View Thumbnails from the render tree menu.
You can quickly load clips by dragging and dropping image files from any type of browser or toolbar into the render tree work area.
You can set the display size of thumbnails in the render region from the General tab of the Display preferences property editor.
To set the size, choose File Preferences from the main menu and then select Display in the explorer pane of the preferences view to open the Display preferences in the right pane. Set the Thumbnail Size to small, medium, or large.
