Currently, _BlockEdit displays a dialog with a tree view of the block structure of the picked top-level instance and all its descendants. If a nested instance is to be edited while BlockEdit is running, it must be chosen from the dialog; it cannot just be selected from the graphics window, nor can a another _BlockEdit be started while a BlockEdit is already running.
Requests to more easily navigate a block structure have been requested:
https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-30230
https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-36415
A method I use when needing to quickly edit a nested instance within a large structure is:
- _BlockEdit the instance containing the nested instance
- _CopyToClipboard the instance to edit
- Cancel _BlockEdit
- _Paste
- _BlockEdit the newly added instance
- _Delete the newly added instance
This works best when the nested instance is only 1-level deep.
xBlock_insertNestedInstance.py (9.3 KB)
replaces steps 1-4 with the option of either inserting the deepest instance of the object picked or selecting the instance to edit from a direct lineage of the nested blocks. (Steps 5 and 6 still need to be performed.)
Maybe some ideas from this script can be incorporated into _BlockEdit so that the process can be streamlined.