A More Productive Unity Editor Layout
This will be a very quick tutorial on how to change up your Unity editor layout to your liking, alongside a recommended Unity editor layout that I personally use when I work.
**For this tutorial, I am assuming you are already knowledgeable of the editor windows and what they are, such as the Hierarchy window, Scene view, Game view, Project window, etc. If you are not familiar with these, check out my Installing and Getting Started with Unity article that goes covers this.
The Breakdown
This tutorial will have three parts to it. If you already know how to manipulate and move around Unity editor windows, feel free to skip to the section with the editor layout I am recommending.
- Manipulating Editor Windows
- My Recommended Unity Editor Layout
- Saving your Unity Editor Layout
Follow me along in this tutorial, and you will find yourself with the ability to set up the Unity editor to your liking in 30 minutes or less.
Manipulating Editor Windows
To manipulate an editor window, simply hover your mouse pointer over the tab representing the window you would like to manipulate, click-and-hold that tab, and then drag the window to wherever you would like to place it within the overall editor. In the image above, you can see the Hierarchy window is currently set to the top-left of the screen. After dragging and dropping, I now have the Hierarchy set to the top-right, left of the Inspector, in the editor as shown below:
Unity allows you to manipulate the editor windows because they know everyone has different preferences and workflows. As such, they have given Unity developers the control to set up their editor in whatever way is most productive for each dev.
Recommended Unity Editor Layout
Manipulate the windows in your editor until they look like the above image, as that is the recommended layout. Where this layout is: Scene View in the top left, Game View in the bottom left, Inspector covering the entire right-hand side, Hierarchy window to the top-right, and left, of the Inspector, and the Project window to the bottom-right, and left, of the Inspector. Below I also show the image for the editor layout I use when making mobile games. Feel free to use this layout if you prefer.
Feel free to layout your editor however you feel is best for you, my recommendations and preferences are only that, and we are all unique. Next, I’ll show you how to save your layouts, and how to switch between your saved layouts.
Saving your Unity Editor Layout
To save your layout, hover over and click the drop-down menu at the top-right most section of the entire Unity Editor. I highlight which dropdown I am talking about in red in the above image. When clicked, a list of currently saved layouts can be found and switched between. Even if you are new to Unity, you should have a few editor layouts already saved which came with Unity when you downloaded it. You should also see options to save your layout, delete your layout and revert to the factory settings. When you have set your editor as you want, the “save layout” option will save the editor layout you currently have on your screen. You now should be good to go!
Conclusion
Nice! You’ve reached the end of this article, which means you now should have a Unity editor layout (or maybe a few) you feel more comfortable working with. Comments and critiques are welcome, and if I made any errors, please let me know so that I can edit the information to be more accurate for future readers. Have a nice rest of your day (or evening)!
