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How To > Quickly Rename Selected Objects |
A very often required task in the daily 3ds Max practice is the mass-changing of object properties. Here is a very simple renaming script that shows how easy and powerful MAXScript can be when working with multiple objects. Using this example as a starting point, you could develop scripts that change other object properties with a single click...
Related Topics:
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NATURAL LANGUAGE |
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Package the code as macroScript to be used as button, menu or shortcut. |
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Define a rollout to create a dialog |
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Define an edit text box in the rollout to enter the new base name |
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Define a button to initiate the renaming |
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Define a pressed handler for the button |
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Check whether the entered name is valid |
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If yes, go through all selected objects and assign unique names using the base name string. |
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When started, create the dialog using the above definitions. |
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MAXSCRIPT |
macroScript RenameThem category: "HowTo" ( rollout rename_rollout "Enter New Base Name" ( edittext base_name "" button rename_them "RENAME SELECTED OBJECTS..." on rename_them pressed do ( if base_name.text != "" do for i in selection do i.name = uniquename base_name.text )--end on )--end rollout createDialog rename_rollout 250 50 ) |
Step-By-Step:
macroScript RenameThem category:"HowTo" (
The macroScript will be called RenameThem. To use the script, you can go to Customize... and drag the script from the category "HowTo" to a toolbar, a menu, a quad menu or assign to a keyboard shortcut.
rollout rename_rollout "Enter New Base Name" (
The macroScript will present the user with a dialog to enter a new base name. A dialog requires a rollout. We define a new rollout stored in the variable rename_rollout and titled "Enter New Base Name". The rollout will contain two UI elements.
edittext base_name
The first UI element is a text box called base_name. It will have no default text when created.
button rename_them "RENAME SELECTED OBJECTS..."
The second UI element is a button called rename_them. It will display the text "RENAME SELECTED OBJECTS... ".
on rename_them pressed do (
This is the button’s event handler. It will be executed each time the button is pressed.
if base_name.text != "" do for i in selection do i.name = uniquename base_name.text
When the button is pressed, we check the base name first. The edittext box has a property called .text which gives access to the currently entered text. If the text is not the empty string, we can go on with the renaming – this means the user has entered a meaningful base name.
The i loop will iterate through all selected objects. For each object, a new unique name will be generated using the base name entered in the edittext box. The resulting name will be assigned to the .name property of the current object.
)--end on )--end rollout createDialog rename_rollout 250 50
When the script is executed, the createDialog function will take the rollout defined above and display it in a floating dialog with the width of 250 pixels and height of 50.
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Using the Script
Evaluate the script. To use it, you can use Customize... to drag the script from the category "HowTo" to a toolbar, a menu, a quad menu or to assign to a keyboard shortcut.
Start the script – the dialog will open in the center of the desktop. Select any number of objects to be renamed and enter a new base name. Press the button and check the names of the selected objects – they must have the same base name with unique sequential numbers now. You can repeat this as often as you want or close the dialog by pressing the X button of the dialog.
Where to go from here
As already mentioned, you could modify the script to mass-change other object properties.
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