I've found the client autowrench mod to be very useful for this
you just copy the settings you want (including emitters/lights/items/events if you wish), toggle it on with a keybind, and then you can just click your wrench on the bricks you want changed and it won't even bring up the GUI
it also works well with the rapidfire script, so you don't have to keep clicking, but just mouse over everything you want changed