How to create custom editor component to set z-position from dropdown list of values

[jeffweber]

I want to create an editor component that can be added to any GameObject. The component would show a simple dropdown list of possible z-position values (-.02, -.01, 0, .01, .02 for example.)

When I select a value I want the transform’s z value to be updated with the selected value. I’d like the value to be updated within the editor just as if I set the z value directly.

What is the best/easiest way to achieve this?

[keely]

It might not be the best way, but the way for example NGUI does stuff like this is custom inspector for Transform component.

See: http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=TransformInspector

The bad thing about this is that if Transform inspector is changed internally at Unity or you have plugins like NGUI running their own custom inspector, these custom editors will “collide”.

[jeffweber]

Here is the final solution I went with using whydoidoit’s suggestions. Works perfect!

//DepthSetter Component
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

[ExecuteInEditMode]
[System.Serializable]
public class DepthSetter : MonoBehaviour {
	[SerializeField]
	public int DepthIndex = 2;
	public string[] Depths = {"-.02", "-.01", "0", ".01", ".02"};	
}


//DepthSetter Custom Editor - This needs to go in editor folder
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;
using System.Collections;

[CustomEditor (typeof (DepthSetter))]
public class DepthSetterEditor : Editor {
	DepthSetter depthSetter;
	private Transform _transform;		
	
	public override void OnInspectorGUI () 
	{
		depthSetter = target as DepthSetter;
		_transform = depthSetter.gameObject.transform;		
		
		depthSetter.DepthIndex = EditorGUILayout.Popup("Depth",depthSetter.DepthIndex,depthSetter.Depths);		
		
		if (GUI.changed)
		{
			float z = float.Parse(depthSetter.Depths[depthSetter.DepthIndex]);
			_transform.localPosition = this.FixIfNaN(new Vector3(_transform.localPosition.x, _transform.localPosition.y, z));
		}
	}
	
	private Vector3 FixIfNaN (Vector3 v)
	{
		if (float.IsNaN(v.x))
		{
			v.x = 0;
		}
		if (float.IsNaN(v.y))
		{
			v.y = 0;
		}
		if (float.IsNaN(v.z))
		{
			v.z = 0;
		}
		return v;
	}
}

Here is what it looks like in the inspector:

[9432-screen+shot+2013-03-28+at+5.36.31+am.png|9432]

Thanks for the help everyone.