Within Cocos Creator, is there a way to duplicate a complex asset (such as a prefab or scene asset) where the .meta file is also duplicated in order to preserve the asset’s properties?
The only way I have found: drag prefab to Scene, duplicate instance, unlink instance from prefab, drag instance into resources folder as a new prefab.
If you want to Duplicate the same in the Editor window, you can select the object in project structure (i.e. the NodeTree view) and then press Cmd+D (For Mac) or Ctrl+D (For Windows)
In case you want to do the same through code, you can use the following:
var newNode = cc.instantiate( YourPrefabOrNode );
newNode.parent = cc.director.getScene();
The new node is completely independent. So, I don’t think a meta file will be required.