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TL;DR: We need a mod like Edit-Blueprints or The Blueprint Designer Lab that mimics the tutorialspace more closely (i.e. it pauses the real game) and has an overall sleeker workflow.
(Longread warning: below is a long explanation of why existing tools aren't exactly a perfect fit)
Creating and editing blocks of machinery is the essence of Factorio, from the early science setups to entire cityblocks. Judging from my own experience early in the game, I was always distracted from building my factories in real time because of several issues. First, early game defenses, especially on remote outposts, require a lot of attention, and actually stop demanding it only after logistics is researched. I'd love to have an opportunity to pause the game, tinker a bit with my blueprint, and unpause. Second, you have only so much clarity in watching a ghost blueprint, you need to see it in action.
Of course, there are several tools, both out-of-game apps and ingame tools. They are nice and each come with a strength, but none of them are perfect. Teoxoy's editor, while great, only works with vanilla. Proper mod support that does not demand constant attention of the tool's author to add support for every new mod that crops up requires that an editor should be a mod, because only a mod can automatically parse everything that is in a given Factorio installation.
There are mods, of course. The famous Creative Mode, Infinity Mode and Editor Extensions, but they are more for the sandbox mode, which tears you out somewhat from your non-cheat, survival world. They are great for testing large base designs, but the overhead is uncomfortable for when you are still fumbling with a 45 spm blue science setup and need just a few minutes of checkerboard time.
An ideal mod would be the one that takes advantage of the checker-board "tutorial space", that instantly takes you out of your survival game and lets you return back in one click. The current Tips & Tricks experience would be the perfect one if it provided an unlimited freeplay sandbox experience.
There are mods that take advantage of the "tutorial space". Edit-Blueprints by V453000, judging by the videos that featured the mod, was the perfect one. The key word is 'was'. It doesn't work with 1.1, and the problem is deeper than just editing factorio_version in info.json, because the button does not appear if the mod patched that way is forced to load in 1.1.
The Blueprint Designer Lab comes really close, mimics the tutorial checker-space (but uses a surface which introduces problems with Space Exploration), works in 1.1, but has some sluggish points such as the inability to destroy entities with right-click (you have to use Deconstruction Planner), the actual need to use the inventory and have to put items there (unlike Teoxoy's editor, for example), bugged blueprints (you cannot insert directly, you have to copy & paste), and the fact that it does not pause the real game (unlike the tutorials, which do pause the game and use it's own timeline, as evidenced by the /time command). The authors have made great, truly respectable effort with keeping the mod alive. Still, this mod is not a perfect tool for the job.
Having considered the abovementioned, I have a request. I don't know to whom, to the developers or to the modding community (possibly both).
Could someone please develop a blueprint editor mod that combines the tutorials' timepause mode and one-button access, the UI convenience of Teoxoy's editor (pick ghosts straight from the "crafting menu"), and the overall fitness of Edit-Blueprints?
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