Unity Workflows and Editor Tools

Essential workflows for Unity editor scripting, input systems, UI development, and asset management.

Overview

Efficient Unity workflows accelerate development and reduce errors. This skill covers editor customization, modern input handling, UI systems, and asset pipeline optimization.

Core workflow areas:

• Editor scripting and custom tools
• Input System (new and legacy)
• UI development (UI Toolkit, uGUI)
• Asset management and build pipeline

Editor Scripting Basics

Menu Items

Create custom menu commands:

using UnityEditor;

public static class CustomMenu
{
    [MenuItem("Tools/My Tool")]
    private static void ExecuteTool()
    {
        Debug.Log("Custom tool executed");
    }

    [MenuItem("Tools/My Tool", true)]  // Validation
    private static bool ValidateTool()
    {
        return Selection.activeGameObject != null;
    }

    // Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+T (Windows), Cmd+Shift+T (Mac)
    [MenuItem("Tools/Quick Action %#t")]
    private static void QuickAction()
    {
        // Action
    }
}

Shortcut keys:

• % = Ctrl (Cmd on Mac)
• # = Shift
• & = Alt
• _g = G key

Context Menus

Right-click context menu for GameObjects/Components:

[MenuItem("GameObject/My Custom Action", false, 10)]
private static void CustomAction()
{
    GameObject selected = Selection.activeGameObject;
    // Perform action
}

// Component context menu
public class MyComponent : MonoBehaviour
{
    [ContextMenu("Do Something")]
    private void DoSomething()
    {
        Debug.Log("Context menu action");
    }

    [ContextMenuItem("Reset Value", "ResetValue")]
    [SerializeField] private int value;

    private void ResetValue()
    {
        value = 0;
    }
}

Custom Inspector

Override Inspector for custom types:

[CustomEditor(typeof(MyScript))]
public class MyScriptEditor : Editor
{
    public override void OnInspectorGUI()
    {
        // Draw default inspector
        DrawDefaultInspector();

        MyScript script = (MyScript)target;

        // Custom button
        if (GUILayout.Button("Execute Action"))
        {
            script.ExecuteAction();
        }

        // Custom fields
        EditorGUILayout.LabelField("Custom Section", EditorStyles.boldLabel);
        script.customValue = EditorGUILayout.IntSlider("Custom Value", script.customValue, 0, 100);

        // Apply changes
        if (GUI.changed)
        {
            EditorUtility.SetDirty(target);
        }
    }
}

Property Drawers

Custom property display in Inspector:

[System.Serializable]
public class Range
{
    public float min;
    public float max;
}

[CustomPropertyDrawer(typeof(Range))]
public class RangeDrawer : PropertyDrawer
{
    public override void OnGUI(Rect position, SerializedProperty property, GUIContent label)
    {
        EditorGUI.BeginProperty(position, label, property);

        position = EditorGUI.PrefixLabel(position, GUIUtility.GetControlID(FocusType.Passive), label);

        var minProp = property.FindPropertyRelative("min");
        var maxProp = property.FindPropertyRelative("max");

        float halfWidth = position.width / 2;

        Rect minRect = new Rect(position.x, position.y, halfWidth - 5, position.height);
        Rect maxRect = new Rect(position.x + halfWidth, position.y, halfWidth - 5, position.height);

        EditorGUI.PropertyField(minRect, minProp, GUIContent.none);
        EditorGUI.PropertyField(maxRect, maxProp, GUIContent.none);

        EditorGUI.EndProperty();
    }
}

EditorWindow

Create custom editor windows:

public class MyEditorWindow : EditorWindow
{
    private string textField = "";
    private int intField = 0;

    [MenuItem("Window/My Editor Window")]
    private static void ShowWindow()
    {
        var window = GetWindow<MyEditorWindow>();
        window.titleContent = new GUIContent("My Tool");
        window.minSize = new Vector2(300, 200);
        window.Show();
    }

    private void OnGUI()
    {
        GUILayout.Label("My Custom Tool", EditorStyles.boldLabel);

        textField = EditorGUILayout.TextField("Text Field", textField);
        intField = EditorGUILayout.IntField("Int Field", intField);

        if (GUILayout.Button("Execute"))
        {
            Execute();
        }
    }

    private void Execute()
    {
        Debug.Log($"Executed with: {textField}, {intField}");
    }
}

AssetDatabase Operations

Manipulate assets programmatically:

using UnityEditor;

public static class AssetUtilities
{
    [MenuItem("Assets/Create Prefab From Selection")]
    private static void CreatePrefab()
    {
        GameObject selected = Selection.activeGameObject;
        if (selected == null)
            return;

        string path = $"Assets/Prefabs/{selected.name}.prefab";

        // Create prefab
        PrefabUtility.SaveAsPrefabAsset(selected, path);

        AssetDatabase.Refresh();

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