Is the interactive preview added though? I just downloaded it and tried it out and preview doesn’t seem to be there. 
Oh, yeah, sorry… I’ve made a mistake when I was updating the link. Try again, it should work now 
It’s quickly thrown together though, so some corner cases are not yet fixed. For example if remove first and last make up together more character than the length of the name, then nothing will be displayed. I will replace that with some warning once I get back to it.
Yeah, now it works. Nice, thanks!
The batch rename tool uses regular expressions… it just simply isn’t necessary to change it. regex can do all of that and more. It just takes some time to learn. The solution you’ve come to is the right one – a small, unobtrusive Python addon that doesn’t affect anyone else.
Anyways, in my addon which deals with bone names, I’ve made the separator characters used for different things user-configurable. This could be a simple thing to add to Blender, I suppose. In my addon, it uses a JSON file to do this.
The most absurd thing about this, to me, is that the reason this is necessary is to work around another software’s limitations. All of the softwares that separate with underscores do so because a certain other software simply can’t handle anything else. Blender, however, is smart enough to know that you shouldn’t try to interpret names as code, so it allows any string to be used as a name. I think it’s backwards to foist other, less intelligently designed software’s limitations onto Blender.
Perhaps there should, however, be an export feature for automatically replacing certain characters with underscores, especially in e.g. FBX.
To be honest, even if the underscore was not a mitigation of a limitation, but a simple unwritten standard, even then it would make sense for Blender to align with that standard, instead of being unique. Using dot as a separator instead of underscore doesn’t bring any benefits as far as I can tell, but can cause issues.
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I proposed something related to this just yesterday, regarding cryptomatte metadata, channels and output file naming in this post. I think it could be made much more flexible, and cross compatible (with another program and standards, I mean), if certain parameters and separators were exposed in the preferences and treated in a more abstract way
I think using the dot as a separator does exactly one good thing - it marks numbers specifically (as underscores are used for left/right markers). But anyways, I think I agree with you here. I just don’t think Blender should change. The solution is to expose the option to the user, so that the user can adapt and change if desired.
Yes. I had the exact same idea. Somewhere, in the preferences, there should be a field to input anything user wants to use as a separator.
Hi, sorry, if I’m asking in a wrong place, but couldn’t find answer anywhere else on the web.
When batch renaming - is there a way to have first object like (example) object.001, object.002 and not object, object.001, object.002…? Everytime the first renamed object is without numbering and I cant find solution for this
Are you talking about the official Batch Rename tool or the addon I’ve made?
The built in Batch renamer tool in Blender, sorry
I have no clue… You can do it easily with my addon, but I don’t even know where to begin to achieve that with Blender’s native batch rename, because there doesn’t seem to be any number padding feature.
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Thank you, will try it
Just set the name as “object.001”.
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Wow, it realy works, didnt know that. Thank you!
I agree that an option should be exposed – the default doesn’t necessarily have to change, but the option to change should be easily accessible.
That batch rename panel is alot more intuitive, nice. I like the batch renaming feature, but yes, the UX could be minimized and improved, also with some advanced options.
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You can also try Viewport Rename addon – minimal UI and all necessary features. As of the 2.8 version you can even search and replace parts of the names interactively by using the operator panel.
That’s the way huhuh huhuh I like it huhuh.
No popups, everything in one place. It’s all there.
Any news on this? It’s really concerning that Batch Rename is a relatively new feature and is already left to rot in such a poor state. The multiple fundamental issues remain:
- A simple Batch Rename tool in a user-centric (not developer-centric) 3D software should not have any learning curve, which requires reading documentation or searching Google prior to first successful use of it.
- Average 3D artist (notice the word artist, not programmer) should not be required to know such advanced scripting concept as Regular Expression to use such essential tool successfully.
- Successful use of the tool without using RegEx is very difficult, in some cases impossible
- Average simple renaming task takes way too many button clicks
This tool is definitely not on par with usability standards strived for since 2.8