Instancer Editor +

1. Download instancer_editor_plus.zip

2. Open Blender 4.2 or later

3. Go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons

4. Click Install from Disk and pick the zip

5. Enable Instancer Editor +

6. The panel appears in 3D Viewport → Sidebar (N) → Instancer

Where the data lives

• The definition is a normal Blender collection, usually excluded from the view layer so it does not render twice.

• The instance is an Empty with Instance Type set to Collection.

• Nothing proprietary is stored: a file made with the add-on opens fine without it.

Edit Instance

Isolated mode — Shortcut: Double-click

The rest of the scene is hidden so only the block remains. Its objects appear exactly where the instance sits, carrying the instance rotation and scale, so what you see is what the viewer sees.

Move, rotate, scale, add and delete freely. Objects created with Shift+A land inside the block automatically, because the add-on makes the definition the active collection while you edit.

Leave with ESC or the Close button. Objects return to their local coordinates and every instance shows the change.

Edit in Place

Scene visible — Shortcut: Ctrl + Double-click

The block behaves the same, but the surrounding scene stays visible and is locked so you cannot select or move it by accident. Use it when the block only makes sense in context — a window in a facade, a chair against a table.

The locked scene displays as wireframe, as a solid colour of your choosing, or as bounding boxes. Change mode while editing and it applies instantly.

Ghost Instances

With Ghost enabled (the ghost icon next to the display mode), the other copies of the block stay on screen as locked wireframes instead of disappearing, so you watch your edits propagate as you work. They are compensated so they do not shift while the block carries its edit transform.

A block can contain other blocks, at any depth. A desk containing chairs, a facade containing windows.

• Double-click the parent to enter it, then double-click a nested instance to go deeper.

• The banner shows the full path, for example Desk › Chair.

• ESC steps back one level and the level you left updates immediately.

• Shift + ESC leaves every level at once.

• Nest Instance drops an existing definition inside the one you are editing; Create Sub-Instance turns a selection into a new nested block.

Circular references are detected and refused: a block can never contain itself, however indirectly.

Replace

Select any number of instances, choose a target definition, and they all switch to it. Position, rotation and scale are preserved, so replacing fifty chairs with a different model is one operation.

Make Unique

Gives the selected instances a definition of their own, copied from the current one, so they can evolve independently. If your selection spans several definitions, each source gets one new shared copy — not one per instance.

The copy is deep: object data, particle settings and internal references are duplicated, so editing the new block never touches the original.

The Instance Materials sub-panel appears while editing and lists every material used inside the block, with a colour swatch and a usage count.

• Click the select icon to select all objects using a given material.

• Assign any material from the file to the whole block in one click.

• Materials still linked from an asset library are made local when the block is localized, so your changes stick.

What localization preserves

The block is rebuilt by duplicating the objects as they exist in your file, not by re-importing them from the source. That distinction matters: re-importing would silently discard everything you had tuned on the library override, modifier settings first among them.

• Modifier settings, including Geometry Nodes inputs and the node-based Array and Mirror of Blender 5.x.

• Constraints, drivers, particle settings, parenting.

• Internal references — a Mirror Object, an Array offset, a constraint target or a driver variable pointing at another object of the block is rewired to the new copy.

• Materials and object data are made local.

While editing, a coloured banner sits at the top of the 3D viewport.

• Isolated: the block name, and "ESC to close" on the right.

• In place: the block name, and "ESC to close — scene locked".

• Nested: the depth and the full breadcrumb path.

The colour changes with depth so you always know how deep you are. The banner draws in every open 3D viewport.

• The definition is temporarily linked into the scene so its objects enter the view layer.

• The rest of the scene is hidden (isolated) or locked (in place), and the previous visibility state is recorded.

• The instance world matrix is applied to the block objects so they appear in the right place; the instance itself is hidden to avoid a ghost copy.

• Every level pushes an entry on a stack holding its matrix, hidden objects, ghosts, temporary link, exclusion state and previously active collection.

• Leaving a level pops that entry and reverses all of it, which is what makes nested editing safe at any depth.

• Undo checkpoints are pushed at entry and exit rather than grouping the whole session.