What is an instance collection ?

It's an object which refers to a collection content linked from another file, or from your main file. This way, you can get multiple copies of linked data very easily.

Why it's usefull ?

Because Instance collections is one of the best feature of blender, allowing to instanciate a group of objects, whatever their type are.

What is Instance Collection toolbox for ?

This toolbox contains some helpful tools when you are using instance collection. The tools are :

Sel to Inst : convert selected objects into a new instance collection. Few options are available :

• New Collection Name : Choose your name of your Instance Collection. By default, "Random ID" will create a name with 5 random letters
• Use Collection Label (checked by default) : Will use the prefix set in the preferences (section later)
• Collection Color (random by default) : Will change the color of the collection. If you want a defined color, change it
• Keep Original Location (checked by default) : Will make the instance collection be at the same location which means nothing moves. If unchecked, the instance collection will be moved to the center of the world
• Collection Center : Every Instance collection has a kind of origin. You can choose either World Origin, 2D Cursor, Collection Center, Collection center with Z on 0
• Store in Asset Browser : it will automatically store the instance collection as an asset. The Asset Manager has to be opened to make it work

Coll to Inst : convert selected collection into a new instance collection. Few options are available :

• Use Collection Label (checked by default) : Will use the prefix set in the preferences (section later)
• Collection Color (Current by default) : Will set the color of the collection. If you want a defined color, change it, but by default it will use the one set in the selected collection
• Keep Original Location (checked by default) : Will make the instance collection be at the same location which means nothing moves. If unchecked, the instance collection will be moved to the center of the world
• Collection Center : Every Instance collection has a kind of origin. You can choose either World Origin, 2D Cursor, Collection Center, Collection center with Z on 0
• Store in Asset Browser : it will automatically store the instance collection as an asset. The Asset Manager has to be opened to make it work

Inst to Coll : The revert action of Coll to Inst :

It will re-link the original collection in the current scene

Update Asset Manager :

It will update the Asset Manager with all the collection in the current scene

Rename Data : Allow you to synchronize the data and the object. Two options are available :

• Data renames Object : the name of the data will rename all the selected objects
• Object renames Data : the name of the object will rename all the selected data

Addon Preferences :

Few Preferences are available for the user :

• Label: By default "ROOT_", it will put this label as a prefix or a suffix, to unify the naming convention of your elements
• Scene Library (checked by default) : all the collections will be stored in a unique file (name "InstanceCollections_Library" by default), to allow you to change your collections
• Store in Asset Browser (checked by default) : will store instance collection created by default in the Asset Browser