You can't have the concept of "nested" prefabs, no.

What you could do is set up some kind of dummy gameobject/node that, on Awake(), Instantiates your desired prefab at it's current position/rotation/scale.

So each game object that's a child of your root prefab would have a script that looks something like this:

class PrefabSpawner : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject prefab;

    void Awake()
    {
            GameObject go = Instantiate( prefab, transform.position, transform.rotation );
            go.transform.parent = transform.parent;
            Destroy( gameObject );
    }
} 

Maybe our last plugin may help you! http://u3d.as/content/bento-studio/nested-prefab/2Jz

I know exactly what you want to do and I too cannot find a way to do it. :/

If I'm not mistaken you want the ability to create 'prefab links' in much the same way you get asset links. This would then allow you to have a number of objects and be able to use them individually as well as have a 'prefab links' hierarchy for common layouts etc.

You would think this would be an easy feature to add. it seems half the functionality is there with the asset linking.

Here's an example for people to help understand the problem.

I want to be able to do this (imagine this is the project view):

• prefab1
• prefab2
• commonLayoutPrefab
  • prefab1
  • prefab2

Changing prefab1 or prefab2 under commonLayoutPrefab should be the same as changing prefab1 or prefab2 at the base level as the ones under commonLayoutPrefab are only links to the originals.

Buy this plugin and all your problems are solved: http://u3d.as/content/databox-games/prefabs-in-prefabs-plugin/2Px

If I interpret you correctly you need what I done recently.

I wanted to build in a single Prefab composed from several pieces: a bunch of grapes with 12 grapes, 2 leafs and 1 tip.

I went to the Scene and created the individual pieces, one by one (you can duplicate and rotate the grapes to change the appearance of them and also the leafs). I positioned them together to my convenience. Then went to Assets > Create > Prefab, which created a new empty prefab: I called it GrapesBunch. I shift-right-clicked each one of the objects in the Scene to have all them grouped. Then, GameObject > Make Parent. All the grouped objects formed a single entity. Drag the grouped objects from the Hierarchy windows to the new prefab icon (GrapesBunch) in the Project window. Then, I clicked on the GrapesBunch and I can swa all the parts of the prefab (each grape, each leaf, and so on)

I hope it help you.