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Getting started

Overview \ What it is

BroRenamer is an advanced renaming tool for Maya. It relies on an intuitive approach where you stack text processing operations in a list in any order which you can then preview and execute. It supports all sorts of different operations from Search and Replace to CamelCaseSplit. Numbering with digits or letters, Saving and Loading presets and more.

You can view the full list of possible operations and options right inside Renamer tool by going to Help - Quick Documentation.

BroRenamer can also detect potential name clashes during preview and warn you. This can be very useful when working in large scenes with many objects.

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Basic usage

UI is split into two halves, on the right you can view the preview of your rename operation. On the left you have your editing zone. To start renaming, select an object or multiple objects in the outliner or viewport. Objects will be processed in the order you selected them in, which will matter when you use numbering processors. You can also use "Hierarchy" checkbox to select all hierarchy below your selected objects.

Now select a processor you want to use from the dropdown menu on the left and click "Add". You will see a processor added to the list on the left. If it has options you will be able to edit them now. Now click "Preview". You will see a preview of the rename operation appear on the right.

Keep adding processors, tweaking settings and using Preview button until you are satisfied with the result. You can change order of processors by using buttons with up and down arrows, and you can remove them by clicking a button with the red X to the right of a processor.

Finally, once you're happy with the renaming result you can click "Rename" to apply these changes to your scene. If you'd like to use this processing order later you can go to File - Save to save a preset. File - Load will allow you to load a preset later.

Available Processors

New Name

Creates a completely new name. Should be first in the list, otherwise it will override other processors.

Attributes:

  • New Name: Text to use as the new name

Notes:

  • Supports special token which is replaced with Maya node type of the object.

Original Name

Appends the original short name to the current working string.

Replace

Find and replace substring occurrences.

Attributes:

  • From: Substring to find

  • To: Replacement text

Suffix

Appends characters to the end of the name.

Attributes:

  • Suffix: Text to append

Prefix

Prepends characters to the start of the name.

Attributes:

  • Prefix: Text to prepend

Number

Adds a numeric or alphabetic counter based on selection order.

Attributes:

  • Digits: Zero-padded width for numbers

  • Start at: Starting index (0-based by default)

  • As Letters: Use alphabetic characters instead of digits

  • Uppercase: Uppercase the letters if As Letters is enabled

UUID

Appends a random UUID (hex).

Trim

Trims characters or words from start and/or end of the working string.

Attributes:

  • Start: Number of characters/words to remove from the start

  • End: Number of characters/words to remove from the end

  • Words: If enabled, trims by words instead of by characters. Words are split by underscores by default. You can use replace, split or camelcasesplit operations before trim to prepare the string.

Strip

Removes whitespace at the beginning and end of the string.

Uppercase

Converts string to uppercase.

Lowercase

Converts string to lowercase.

Title

Title-cases the string (First Letter Of Each Word Uppercased).

Capitalize

Capitalizes the first character of the string.

CamelCaseSplit

Splits CamelCase words inserting the chosen symbol between parts.

Attributes:

  • Split Symbol: The separator to insert between words

Split

Splits the string by a separator and joins parts with spaces.

Attributes:

  • Separator: Character(s) to split on

About using spaces in names

Mind that while you can use space here, it can only be used while processing. In the end Maya does not allow spaces in names and will automatically replace them with underscores.

Missing a processor?

If you are missing some kind of text processing capability in this renamer, feel free to send me an email to [email protected] or leave a request on BroTools community Discord server.

I will do my best to add it ASAP!