Interactive Universal Renamer

cbuelter

NEW VERSION: Asset Paths + Sorting + Filtering + Multiselection

interactiveRenamerAnim

I guess every person dealing with rigging and MAXScript has to write a renaming script once in his life. I have tested at least half a dozen existing ones before I wrote my own. A key thing that is different from other similar scripts is the ability to see your name changes instantly while you type, giving it an interactive “text editor” feeling. A useful tool for maintaining name conventions in a complex Rig or scene, as well as quick file renaming, e.g. for numbering image sequences for import to Adobe Flash etc.
Hope you like it!

28/12/13:   Rewritten again to better separate model and functionality. New features include: Asset Paths can be renamed, Names can be filtered and sorted, only selected items in the list are renamed.

25/01/13:    Replaced the edittext field with a dotNet textbox with autocompletion (thanks to Nick Moutafis)

19/01/13:    Now finds all materials in scene and nested materials on selected objects, Shows No. of items in list, remembers last file path, fancy header image, Supported nested material types atm: Multimaterial, Blend, Shell, Compositematerial, Shellac, Shellac, DoubleSided, VRay2SidedMtl, VRayBlendMtl, VRayMtlWrapper, VRayOverrideMtl

18/01/13:    Rewrote almost everything, dumped most custom GUI elements, too much hassle when things change,  Added layers and materials, added scene/selection option for objects and materials, Added quick single renaming tool by doubleclicking an item in the list, Now only renames when name changed

23/09/12:   GUI stuff, MZP installer

20/09/12:   Some bug fixes, implemented s&r “All occurences” option

Installation is easy: Just drag & drop the .mzp onto your 3ds Max viewport (or use MAXScript -> Run Script) and add the macro script (category: Buelter) to a menu/toolbar/quadmenu/shortcut afterwards.

[download id=678]

If you use this script, be awesome and donate a few bucks!

Published by cbuelter

37 Comments

  1. Hi

    Your script is very useful. Tested it yesterday, look great. Tried renaming layer but did not found the GET NAMES FROM -Selection (or) -Scene. It would be very useful to be able to rename only selevcted layers and have them displayed alphabeticaly instaed of creation datre. There would be no use then for my other script; Layer renamer.

    Thank you

    Reply

    1. thanks. yes selection/scene currently only works for materials and objects, and I am not sure if I want to add it for layers, dont want to make things to specific for one workflow. However I am planning to add the option to only rename selected layers. When I find the time 🙂

      Reply

  2. Great script! One question, I’ve renamed al my maps sucesfully, but all my materials still look for the original names… is there a way of fixing this?

    Thank you!

    Reply

  4. Hi,

    Can you please post or email a link to send you a few buck via an English Paypal site? The link goes to a German one, and my German is really rusty. Danke!

    Reply

  7. Also a new feature request, this will speed up some workflows.
    A new check box to rename objects by adding them to the selection on the fly.
    For example having 100 boxes and selecting them by either using the paint selection region tool or Ctrl clicking them can update the names instantly at selection. I think its useful for the current numbered feature.

    Reply

    1. I reset the GUI after renaming because I found it less confusing for people together with the preview. I am currently finishing the rewrite of the tool, so I will think about all suggestions. But as I said before, I would like the tool to be straight-forward to use and universal, not tailored to a special workflow, so no promises 😉

      Reply

  9. Hello! One of the most promissing rename-script on my opinion! But not possible to check out, cant find the link) May be sometime later)
    Good luck with your work!

    Reply

  10. Please add the ability to rename just bump/specular/opacity maps in selected materials so to be able to add _NORM.png etc etc to duplicated diffuse->bump slots.

    Reply

  11. Hi Christoph. Very good script. Thank you for sharing with us. Layer mode rename – not renaming, if i want to just search and replace.

    Reply

    1. Hi Kirill, please provide a more detailed description what is not working. Layer renaming via search&replace works fine for me, remember you need to select the items in the list first.

      Reply

  12. I installed the script in 3ds max 9 .

    I know it’s an old version of Max but the script installed perfectly and the panel and options appear and I can see the preview with the selection and the names changed but when I press the rename button , the names not really change .. still the same .. i need change all the names of the assets of DDS to JPG .. the preview works but does not change the names ..

    Reply

    1. Hi, the script is not compatible to Max 9 as it uses some stuff introduced in Max 2008.
      The following however should solve your problem, if it still persists:


      oldExtension = ".dds"
      newExtension = ".jpg"

      assets = #()

      ATSOps.Visible = true
      ATSOps.Refresh()
      ATSOps.GetFiles &assets

      for asset in assets do
      (
      if toLower (getFilenameType asset) == toLower oldExtension do
      (
      newName = substituteString (toLower asset) (toLower oldExtension) (toLower newExtension)
      print ("Renaming: " + asset + " >> " + newName)
      ATSOps.ClearSelection()
      ATSOps.SelectFiles #(asset)
      ATSOps.RetargetSelection newName
      )--end if
      )--end for

      ATSOps.Refresh()

      Cheers

      Reply

      1. Hi,
        Can this be rewritten so it changes the prefix of the filename instead of extension.
        Lets say I have three fileservers \\f1 \\f2 \\f3 (all of them are mirrored folderstructure) and wants to repath all of them to a drive instead of a network path when I run a maxscript. The interactive renamer is so awesome but same operation with exact words needs to be executed all time and might find it easier if this could work
        Lets say I have textures in this folder \\f1\resources\textures and want to replace the prefix \\f1\resources\ to A:\ like this

        oldPrefix1 = “\\f1\resources\, \\f2\resources\, \\f1\resources\”
        newPrefix1 = “A:\”
        oldPrefix2 = “\\f1\projects\, \\f2\projects\, \\f1\projects\”
        newPrefix2 = “B:\”
        etc
        Is this possible with an easy ATSOps script (tried but couldnt get it to work) or any other kind of script?

      2. Hi, sorry but I don’t really do any scripting requests anymore. Back in the day scriptspot.com used to be a good place for that, you are welcome to take that script there and ask for help. Cheers

  14. Hi, One of my most used free scripts. I greatly appreciate your work.

    Would it be difficult to have the option of changing the case of names. Lower, Title and Upper would be fine. And maybe with the option of adding default naming conventions like this little script.

    Reply

  18. I would like to ask you is it any way to change names to lowercase/uppercase during renaming?
    Btw very nice script!

    Reply

    1. Yes I am sorry about that, I need to redo my page, it’s currently down and only this blog is left. You can fetch the script from https://github.com/cb109/interactive-universal-renamer, I think downloading and unpacking the zip then dragging the interactiveRenamer.ms to your 3ds Max viewport should do the trick. Let me know if you run into any issues, will try to get up the page in the next weeks, probably be moving to a different CMS.

      Reply

  21. I absolutely LOVE this script, but one aspect of it makes it unworkable at times. There is no ability to scroll sideways in the navigation pane. For users who unusually long file paths we are left guessing which assets we are highlighting. Please consider adding this feature to your future updatesiu

    Reply

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