The Explorer window shows a hierarchical list of every instance inside an experience. At the highest level of the hierarchy are the services; Workspace, for example, is where visible 3D content such as parts are stored.
Parent-Child Hierarchy
Roblox uses the concept of parenting to organize objects. All children of a parent object appear under its branch when expanded.
Expanding and Collapsing Branches
Clicking the arrow next to a parent branch, or pressing → or ← when a parent is selected, expands or collapses only that branch (nested child branches remain in their current state). To expand or collapse all branches within a multi-nested hierarchy, hold Shift when clicking the arrow.
Inserting and Parenting
Insert New Object
Some objects like primitive parts can be inserted from the Model tab, but a full array of objects can be inserted through any of the following methods:
Hover over the object's parent and click the ⊕ button.
Right-click the object's parent and select Insert Object.
Select the object's parent and press Ctrl/⌘ + I.
Each method opens an insertion window which contains a list of objects, sorted by category. You can quickly locate familiar objects by typing a search query in the input field:
If desired, you can further customize the behavior of the insertion workflow as follows:
Toggle an expanded (wider) view of the insertion popup.
Additional settings for object insertion.
Paste From Clipboard
For an object copied to the clipboard, you can paste it as a new child to the Workspace, or into one or more existing parents.
Press Ctrl/⌘ + V to paste the object into the top-level Workspace.
Right-click specific parent(s) and choose one of the following options from the context menu:
Paste Into Pastes the child geometrically on top of the original. Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + V Paste Into at Original Location Pastes the child at the same CFrame it was authored at. If you select multiple objects and right-click, the options above will appear as Paste Into Selected [], and completing the operation will paste the clipboard item(s) into all of the selected parents. This is a convenient way to paste the same child into multiple parents, such as a common Texture into several different Parts.
Changing Parents
To change the parent of one or more children (reparent), simply drag and drop them onto the new parent.
Filtering Objects
You can filter objects by typing a query into the Filter Workspace input near the top of the window. This input can be quickly accessed by pressing Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + X.
Organizing by Folders
Like directories/folders on a computer, the Folder object is a useful way to organize objects. For instance, if you want to store all environmental sounds in a logical place, you can create a folder and place multiple Sound objects within it.
You can organize objects into folders as follows:
Create a Folder instance through a standard insertion method, then drag and drop existing objects into it.
Select multiple objects, right-click them, and then select Group as a Folder from the context menu or press Alt/⌥ + Ctrl/⌘ + G.
Selecting Filtered Results
Within a filtered hierarchy, certain key shortcuts and mouse operations behave differently than they do within a non-filtered hierarchy.
Select All
Within a non-filtered hierarchy, pressing Ctrl/⌘ + A selects all objects.
Within a filtered hierarchy, pressing Ctrl/⌘ + A selects only the filter-matching objects.
Shift-Select
Within a non-filtered hierarchy, clicking an object and then Shift-clicking another object selects everything within the range.
Within a filtered hierarchy, if both the initially clicked object and the Shift-clicked object match the filter query, only filter-matching objects within the range are selected.
Drag Select
Clicking and dragging from the right side of the window initiates a selection box. Within a non-filtered hierarchy, everything within the box is selected.
Within a filtered hierarchy, only filter-matching objects within the selection box are selected.
Additional Key Shortcuts
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
| → | With a collapsed branch selected, expands that branch. When pressed again, selects the first child immediately under the parent node. |
| ← | With any child of a branch selected, moves selection back to the parent node. When pressed again, collapses the entire branch. |
| home | Selects the topmost object in the hierarchy (Workspace). |
| end | Selects the bottommost object in the hierarchy. |
| page up | Selects the object in the hierarchy that's above the topmost visible hierarchy item. |
| page down | Selects the object in the hierarchy that's below the bottommost visible hierarchy item. |