How do I set a parent of a prefab at runtime (C#)?

Question

I tried transform.parent = desiredParentTransform

but unity gives me an error saying that parenting a prefab is disabled to prevent data corruption.

What do I do?

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by Ashkan_gc · Jan 19, 2010 at 07:09 AM

you can not make a prefab parent of another and a prefab can not have a parent at all. in editor if you drag something on a prefab it will change the content of that prefab with the newly draged gameObject. if you want to change the parent of a prefab you should instantiate it and change the parent and then create a prefab from it again. in runtime you don't have access to editor classes and methods but in editor scripts you can do this easily. to create a prefab in a script you should use CreateEmptyPrefab and then assign a Gameobject to it by ReplacePrefab. so just instantiate the prefab, then do whatever you want. (add or remove components, change parent) and then apply to prefab.

Add comment · Show 2 · Share

swatmaster69 · Mar 25, 2013 at 09:08 PM 0

Share

I think this solution defeats the purpose of using Prefabs. The right way to do it is explained here by user "Slem."

Fattie · Mar 25, 2015 at 04:02 PM 0

Share

yeah this is not the way to go. simply, clone the 'instantiated prefab' and use that normally in the normal way. the actual 'instantiated prefab' is useless.

Answer 2

The "instantiated prefab" is useless. Just clone it and then use that. It's just a weird thing about Unity.

For example, the following script .. it loads one hundred "gems" by name from prefabs. Of course, you wouldn't "drag in" 100 prefab references, so this takes care of it for you -- getting them programatically by name and putting the 100 example gems in an array.

Note that where it makes "pf" .. which is an "instantiated prefab" .. that is useless.

You can do nothing with it.

The routine then just clones it -- the GameObject thus made is totally normal and you can do what you want with it -- so that's "nu" .... just forget about the "pf" object. (It will go away .. I think :) )

(Somewhat confusingly, in this game, whenever the game needs say a gem #71, it asks this script for a copy of that gem, so indeed it at that time clones "nu" number 71 and returns it. So, the 100 cloned "nu"s seen here are indeed only used themselves as models throughout gameplay.)

 void Awake()
     {
     holder = new GameObject[11,11];
     
     for ( int shape = 1; shape <= 10; ++shape )
         for ( int color = 1; color <= 10; ++color )
             {
             string path = .. some complex file name ..
             GameObject pf = (GameObject)Resources.Load(path);
             // just completely forget about that thing, it's whacky
             
             GameObject nu = (GameObject)Instantiate(pf);
             
             nu.transform.parent = transform;
             nu.transform.localScale = blah...;
             nu.transform.localPosition = blah...;
             holder[ blah ] == nu;
             }
     }

Answer 3

Answer by ThiagoVT · Sep 18, 2013 at 12:07 PM

Try this! Worked for me! Instantiate the prefab and use Game.Find to find it and add it to desired hierarchy. Like these:

 class AClassThatUsesAPrefab : MonoBehaviour {
     public GameObject myPrefab;
     public GameObject prefabInstance;
  
     void Start() {
         prefabInstance = (GameObject)Instantiate(myPrefab);
         myPrefab.name = "NameOBJECT"; // if you have a multiple instances
         GameObject.Find("myPrefabNAME(Clone)").transform.parent = transform;

         myPrefab.name = "NameOBJECT2"; // if you have a multiple instances
         GameObject.Find("myPrefabNAME(Clone)").transform.parent = transform;
 
     }
 }

Add comment · Show 2 · Share

Bunny83 · Sep 18, 2013 at 12:37 PM 1

Share

Sorry, but that makes no sense. prefabInstance is already the instantiated object. Using GameObject.Find is just slow and gives you much trouble if you have multiple objects with the same name.

ThiagoVT · Sep 18, 2013 at 02:02 PM 0

Share

sorry but worked perfectly fine for me, and i solved the multiples instances using myPrefab.name, and not happens slowly for me... myPrefab.name = "PrefabName"; GameObject.Find("myPrefabNA$$anonymous$$E(Clone)").transform.parent = transform;

Answer 4

Answer by Proclyon · Nov 16, 2010 at 01:44 PM

I'f you'd let me reply the Quality in Q&A with Quality = q and Qq = Aq then I would say:

Just don't parent the prefab because it is a bad way to do what you want in any case. Make a clone with the Instantiate method Instantiate(PREFAB, TRANSFORM (pos), ROTATION)

Add comment · Share

Answer 5

Answer by nolver · Nov 16, 2010 at 11:22 AM

The only workaround I know about this is the following:

At design-time create an empty object, and attach the prefab as a child of it. This object will act as a wrapper.
At run-time create instances of the wrapper object, instead of the prefab.
The instanced object transform parent can now be set to any other object.

Add comment · Show 1 · Share

Mike 3 · Nov 16, 2010 at 11:59 AM 1

Share

If you just instantiate the prefab and set the instance's parent, it'll work fine. The issue in the question was that he was trying to set the prefab's parent, not the instance's one

How do I set a parent of a prefab at runtime (C#)?

6 Replies

Your answer

Welcome to Unity Answers

Follow this Question

Related Questions