Instantiate object at mouse position

Hello,

I am not a programmer at all and I have been trying to teach myself how to instantiate an object at the mouse position with X distance away from the main camera. Can someone please clarify how this is done? Keep in mind I have very very little knowledge of javascript.

-Thanks

 

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/Camera.ScreenToWorldPoint.html

Feed that with the mouse position from the input class.

 

I have been working on this a little more and have been making some progress. So far I have a script that instantiates cubes when the left mouse button is pressed. Here are the problems with that so far,

-The cubes do not instantiate at the mouse position
-The script instantiates a lot of cubes a soon as the mouse button is pressed. I need it to instantiate 1 when the mouse button is pressed.
-When I instantiate the cubes, I have to be touching an object, because I am casting a ray I believe.
-The cubes must destroy in 5 seconds after being instantiated.

IMPORTANT: My game is 2.5D

Heres what I have:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. var platform: GameObject;
3.  
4. function Update() {
5.  
6.      if(Input.GetMouseButton(0))
7.             // Construct a ray from the current mouse coordinates
8.         var ray : Ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay (Input.mousePosition);
9.         if (Physics.Raycast (ray)) {
10.             Instantiate (platform, transform.position, transform.rotation);
11.         }
12.        
13.  
14. }
15.  
16. function OnDrawGizmosSelected () {
17.     var p : Vector3 = camera.ScreenToWorldPoint (Vector3 (100,100,camera.nearClipPlane));
18.     Gizmos.color = Color.yellow;
19.     Gizmos.DrawSphere (p, 0.1);
20. }
21.  

Quietus, I got the code you suggested working, but I am not sure how to use that. Thanks!

 

Okay I figured out how to do this! Hopefully someone will be able to use my scripts!

Code to instantiate object:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. var testObject : Transform;
3.  
4. function Update ()
5.     {
6.  
7.     if (Input.GetButtonDown ("Fire1"))
8.         {
9.         var mousePos = Input.mousePosition;
10.         mousePos.z = 15.0;       // we want 2m away from the camera position
11.  
12.         var objectPos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(mousePos);
13.  
14.         var myObject= Instantiate(testObject, objectPos, Quaternion.identity);
15.        
16.  
17.         }
18.     }
19.  

Code to destroy the object:

[/CODE]
var testObject: GameObject;
var destroyTime = 1;

function Update () {
Destroy (testObject, destroyTime);
}
[/CODE]