How to choose the transform tool from script ?

Questions & Answers
1

Is it possible to control the current transform tool (Pan, translate, rotate or scale) with a simple line like 

Editor.transformTool = TransformTool.Rotate;

The reason I want to do this is I'm doing a custom editor script where you can click a button in the inspector, then an object in the scene view, which will affect the object to some variable. If the transform tool is different from pan, the click is ignored by my script and the object is simply selected. I hear there is the function Event.current.Use();, but it doesn't seems to help.

[ EDIT ] Just to be clear, here is the code I'm talking about, without useless stuff :

class ObjectEditor extends Editor 
{   
    private var pick = false;
    private var selection : GameObject = null;

    function OnInspectorGUI () 
    {       
        var str : String = selection ? selection.name : "null";

        // Create a button in the inspector with the name f the selection displayed in it.
        // If you click it, you enter the picking mode and the next click in the scene view will pick an object.
        GUILayout.BeginHorizontal ();
            var r : Rect = EditorGUILayout.BeginHorizontal ("Button");
                if (GUI.Button (r, GUIContent.none))
                    pick = !pick;               

                GUILayout.Label (str);
            EditorGUILayout.EndHorizontal ();
        GUILayout.EndHorizontal ();
    }

    function OnSceneGUI()
    {
        // If this is a click and if we are in picking mode
        // The problem is that if you click in the scene view, you loose
        // the focus on your object, so this code isn't executed.
        if( Event.current.type == EventType.MouseUp && pick )
        {
            // We are going to cast a ray through the scene to pick an object.
            var R : Ray =  HandleUtility.GUIPointToWorldRay( Event.current.mousePosition );
            var H : RaycastHit;

            if( Physics.Raycast( R, H, Mathf.Infinity ) )
            {
                pick = false;
                selection = H.collider.gameObject;
                Repaint(); // Display the name right now.
            }

            // Supposed to "eat" the event, prenting it to do something else. I guess the selection by Unity occurs before.
            Event.current.Use();
        }
    }
}

[ EDIT 2 ] To be thorough, OnSceneGUI is executed once with a MouseDown in any cases. But then, the focus is lost.

4

By digging into the UnityEditor DLL with MonoDevelop, I came up with the following.

DISCLAIMER: The following script uses Reflection to call a private API. It is not documented or supported by Unity and may change in a future release. (Some may consider this evil; you have been warned.)

Put this C# script into your Editor folder ...

using System.Reflection;

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

// SceneToolHacker uses diabolical reflection technique to set the
// active tool. Note that this may well break with future Unity releases!!
public static class SceneToolHacker
{
    public enum Tool
    {
        DragCamera = 0,
        Translate = 1,
        Rotate = 2,
        Scale = 3
    }

    public static Tool CurrentTool
    {
        get { return (Tool)mTools_current.GetValue(null, null); }
        set { mTools_current.SetValue(null, (int)value, null); }
    }

    // "Sorry Virginia, there is no private."
    private static PropertyInfo mTools_current = typeof(Tools).GetProperty("current", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
}

You can either take it from there, or give this menu demo a whirl to see it in action ...

using System;

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

// Quick menu-driven demonstration.
public static class SceneToolHackerMenu
{
    [MenuItem("Hack/Scene Tool/Get")]
    public static void GetSceneTool()
    {
        Debug.Log(String.Format("{0} tool is active.", SceneToolHacker.CurrentTool));
    }

    [MenuItem("Hack/Scene Tool/Set/Translate")]
    public static void SetSceneToolTranslate()
    {
        SceneToolHacker.CurrentTool = SceneToolHacker.Tool.Translate;
    }

    [MenuItem("Hack/Scene Tool/Set/Rotate")]
    public static void SetSceneToolRotate()
    {
        SceneToolHacker.CurrentTool = SceneToolHacker.Tool.Rotate;
    }

    [MenuItem("Hack/Scene Tool/Set/Scale")]
    public static void SetSceneToolScale()
    {
        SceneToolHacker.CurrentTool = SceneToolHacker.Tool.Scale;
    }
}

Dr. EvilEvil is fun!

5

This script works for me in 3.4

Tools.current = Tool.View;

Tool enum class can be found here

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/Tool.html

2

Try setting ...

gameObj.hideFlags = HideFlags.NotEditable;

This should make the object non-selectable in the scene view, which could solve your problem. (Though I'm not quite clear if the object being selected is the problem you're having, so this may not help.)

3

So, I didn't find out the solution, but I found an other way for my problem (and actually a better way). It's pretty simple, just need to use the right click instead of the left ...