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.
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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¶
Allows you to input any new starting name for your objects. This will override anything before it, so it should be the first in the list, if you want to use it. Usually this is used when creating new names for your objects, when renaming from Maya's default names like joint1 to something like Finger_. You can then use numbering processors to make them unique.
Original Name¶
Inserts original name of an object as it was before renaming in front of the current name.
Replace¶
Replaces a sub-string with another. For example if you have a name like Bob_Finger_L_01, you can specify From: Bob; To: Mary, and the result will be: Mary_Finger_L_01
From - A substring to search for
To - A substring to replace it with
Suffix¶
Adds a user-specified suffix to the name
Prefix¶
Adds a user-specified suffix to the name
Number¶
Allows you to add incrementing numbering to your objects' names.
Digits - A number of digits to add, for example 1; 01; 001; 0001 etc
As Letters - Will use letters instead of numbers, resulting in names like A, B, C; AA, AB, AC; etc
Uppercase - Works only with letters, uses uppercase letters instead of lowercase
Trim¶
Allows you to trim the name from left and\or right side.
Start - How many characters or words to remove from the start of the name
End - How many characters or words to remove from the end of the name
Words - Specifies whether Trim should operate on individual characters or words. Words must be separated by spaces to be processed, so you might need to use Replace before this to replace underscores _ with spaces .
Planned updates
I'm planning to include pre-separation right into this operator in future versions.
Strip¶
Removes any whitespace before and after the string, if there is any.
Uppercase¶
Translates the name into all-uppercase. For example thisName will looke like THISNAME.
Lowercase¶
Translates the name into all-lowercase. For example THisName will looke like thisname.
Title¶
Capitalizes every first character of every word
Capitalize¶
Makes first character of the string uppercase
Camel Case Split¶
Camel Case is the practice of writing phrases without spaces or punctuation, indicating the separation of words with a single capitalized letter, and the first word starting with either case. Here's an example: thisIsCamelCase.
This processor allows you to split such names into separate words, adding any kind of separator you like. For example with the default separator being underscore symbol _, the result of processing the example above will be: this_Is_Camel_Case
Separator - What separator to put between words after splitting. Default one is _, you can use any symbol you like.
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!