A feature that appeared briefly in a beta release of Unity 3.0, but which has since disappeared, is editor macros. The reason for the feature’s withdrawal is unclear. Presumably it’s unready for primetime, and will appear in a future version of Unity. Fortunately the ability to evaluate arbitrary code snippets in the editor is still available in the UnityEditor.Macros namespace, and taking advantage of it is easier than racing a sloth.

Macros are little snippets of code that help speed up repetitive tasks in the editor. The same functionality can be achieved by writing an editor script, but for simple tasks — particularly ones that you only intend to run once — doing so can be a chore greater than the action itself. Perhaps you want to duplicate the selected game object a thousand times, or you want to perform a batch rename. For such tasks, and even for more complex ones, a few lines of code will often suffice.

I’ve written a simple editor window script (also available at the Unify Community Wiki) that allows you to input any code and execute it. Place the file in the /Assets/Editor directory and navigate to the Window → Macros menu.

Here’s a few basic examples of how it might use be used. Note that the MacroEvaluator.Eval method only accepts JavaScript and not C#.

// Duplicate the selected game object 100 times
var duplications = 100;

for (var i = 0; i < duplications; i++) {
    GameObject.Instantiate(Selection.activeObject);
}

// Create a grid of cubes
var rows = 9;
var cols = 9;
var spacing = 2;

for (var i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
    for (var j = 0; j < cols; j++) {
        var pos = new Vector3(i * spacing, 0, j * spacing);
        var go = GameObject.CreatePrimitive(PrimitiveType.Cube);
        // Name the cube with a letter and number ("A1")
        go.name += " " + char.ConvertFromUtf32(65 + i) + (j + 1);
        go.transform.position = pos;
    }
}

// Batch rename selected rigidbodies that have gravity enabled
var bodies = Selection.GetFiltered(Rigidbody, SelectionMode.Editable);

for (var rb : Rigidbody in bodies) {
    if (rb.useGravity) {
        rb.name = rb.name + " Gravity";
    }
}

An obvious enhancement to make is the ability to save and reuse code snippets. I assume this is what Unity Technologies has in the labs, and I leave the implementation of such functionality as an exercise for the reader.

The usual warnings about using undocumented APIs apply. Just don’t do anything too ridiculous.