Rename Objects (.NET)

As your drawings become more complex, you can rename objects to keep the names meaningful or to avoid conflicts with names in other drawings you have inserted or attached. The Name property is used to get the current name or change the name of a named object.

You can rename any named object except those reserved by AutoCAD, for example, layer 0 or the CONTINUOUS linetype.

Names can be up to 255 characters long. In addition to letters and numbers, names can contain spaces (although AutoCAD removes spaces that appear directly before and after a name) and any special character not used by Microsoft® Windows® or AutoCAD for other purposes. Special characters that you cannot use include less-than and greater-than symbols (< >), forward slashes and backslashes (/ \), quotation marks ("), colons (:), semicolons (;), question marks (?), commas (,), asterisks (*), vertical bars (|), equal signs (=), and single quotes ('). You also cannot use special characters created with Unicode fonts.

Rename a layer

This example creates a copy of layer "0" and renames the new layer to “MyLayer”.

VB.NET

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime
Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices
Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices
 
<CommandMethod("RenameLayer")> _
Public Sub RenameLayer()
    '' Get the current document and database
    Dim acDoc As Document = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument
    Dim acCurDb As Database = acDoc.Database

    '' Start a transaction
    Using acTrans As Transaction = acCurDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction()

        '' Returns the layer table for the current database
        Dim acLyrTbl As LayerTable
        acLyrTbl = acTrans.GetObject(acCurDb.LayerTableId, _
                                     OpenMode.ForWrite)

        '' Clone layer 0 (copy it and its properties) as a new layer
        Dim acLyrTblRec As LayerTableRecord
        acLyrTblRec = acTrans.GetObject(acLyrTbl("0"), _
                                        OpenMode.ForRead).Clone()

        '' Change the name of the cloned layer
        acLyrTblRec.Name = "MyLayer"

        '' Add the cloned layer to the Layer table and transaction
        acLyrTbl.Add(acLyrTblRec)
        acTrans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(acLyrTblRec, True)

        '' Save changes and dispose of the transaction
        acTrans.Commit()
    End Using
End Sub

C#

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;
using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;
 
[CommandMethod("RenameLayer")]
public static void RenameLayer()
{
    // Get the current document and database
    Document acDoc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;
    Database acCurDb = acDoc.Database;

    // Start a transaction
    using (Transaction acTrans = acCurDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())
    {
        // Returns the layer table for the current database
        LayerTable acLyrTbl;
        acLyrTbl = acTrans.GetObject(acCurDb.LayerTableId,
                                        OpenMode.ForWrite) as LayerTable;

        // Clone layer 0 (copy it and its properties) as a new layer
        LayerTableRecord acLyrTblRec;
        acLyrTblRec = acTrans.GetObject(acLyrTbl["0"],
                                        OpenMode.ForRead).Clone() as LayerTableRecord;

        // Change the name of the cloned layer
        acLyrTblRec.Name = "MyLayer";

        // Add the cloned layer to the Layer table and transaction
        acLyrTbl.Add(acLyrTblRec);
        acTrans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(acLyrTblRec, true);

        // Save changes and dispose of the transaction
        acTrans.Commit();
    }
}

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