Unity How to Spawn Objects on Mouse Click

In this tutorial, I will be showing how to spawn an Object with a mouse click in Unity.

The script will handle spawning the Prefabs on the mouse position along with aligning them to the surface normal.

Steps

• Create a new script, call it SC_ClickSpawner, and paste the code below inside it:

SC_ClickSpawner.cs

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class SC_ClickSpawner : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject[] prefabs; //Prefabs to spawn

    Camera c;
    int selectedPrefab = 0;
    int rayDistance = 300;

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        c = GetComponent<Camera>();
        if(prefabs.Length == 0)
        {
            Debug.LogError("You haven't assigned any Prefabs to spawn");
        }
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Alpha1))
        {
            selectedPrefab++;
            if(selectedPrefab >= prefabs.Length)
            {
                selectedPrefab = 0;
            }
        }
        else if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Alpha2))
        {
            selectedPrefab--;
            if (selectedPrefab < 0)
            {
                selectedPrefab = prefabs.Length - 1;
            }
        }

        if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0) && Input.GetKey(KeyCode.LeftShift))
        {
            //Remove spawned prefab when holding left shift and left clicking
            Transform selectedTransform = GetObjectOnClick();
            if (selectedTransform)
            {
                Destroy(selectedTransform.gameObject);
            }
        }
        else if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
        {
            //On left click spawn selected prefab and align its rotation to a surface normal
            Vector3[] spawnData = GetClickPositionAndNormal();
            if(spawnData[0] != Vector3.zero)
            {
                GameObject go = Instantiate(prefabs[selectedPrefab], spawnData[0], Quaternion.FromToRotation(prefabs[selectedPrefab].transform.up, spawnData[1]));
                go.name += " _instantiated";
            }
        }
    }

    Vector3[] GetClickPositionAndNormal()
    {
        Vector3[] returnData = new Vector3[] { Vector3.zero, Vector3.zero }; //0 = spawn poisiton, 1 = surface normal
        Ray ray = c.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
        RaycastHit hit = new RaycastHit();
        if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, rayDistance))
        {
            returnData[0] = hit.point;
            returnData[1] = hit.normal;
        }

        return returnData;
    }

    Transform GetObjectOnClick()
    {
        Ray ray = c.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
        RaycastHit hit = new RaycastHit();
        if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, rayDistance))
        {
            Transform root = hit.transform.root;
            if (root.name.EndsWith("_instantiated"))
            {
                return root;
            }
        }

        return null;
    }

    void OnGUI()
    {
        if(prefabs.Length > 0 && selectedPrefab >= 0 && selectedPrefab < prefabs.Length)
        {
            string prefabName = prefabs[selectedPrefab].name;
            GUI.color = new Color(0, 0, 0, 0.84f);
            GUI.Label(new Rect(5 + 1, 5 + 1, 200, 25), prefabName);
            GUI.color = Color.green;
            GUI.Label(new Rect(5, 5, 200, 25), prefabName);
        }  
    }
}

• Attach the SC_ClickSpawner script to the Main Camera
• Assign the Prefabs you intend to spawn to the Prefabs array in the SC_ClickSpawner

• In my case, I will be using simple shapes:

Tip: To prevent spawned prefabs from being "buried" in the surface, make sure their root transform (or the pivot, if it's a single object) is at the bottom.

• Move the Main Camera in front of a surface

Now when you press Play you should be able to spawn an Object by left-clicking on the surface and remove the Objects by holding Left Shift + Left Click.

Pressing '1' will select the next Prefab in the list and pressing '2' will select the previous.