How to batch rename views and sheets in Revit, free

The problem

View and sheet names are how a team finds its way around a model, and they end up on drawings and in issue registers. Duplicated views arrive as "Copy 1", a naming standard changes halfway through a project, a client asks for a different prefix. Each of those is a rename of tens or hundreds of names.

The native ways, and their limits

• +One at a time in the Project Browser: right-click, Rename, type. Reliable, and fine for a handful.
• +In a view list or sheet list schedule: names can be edited in the schedule, which is quicker for typing down a column. There is still no find and replace, so every name is typed by hand.
• +With a Dynamo script: a script can find and replace text in names. It works, but it has to be built, and it usually writes straight away with no preview.

With RenameR Lite: find and replace, with a preview, free

1. 01Download RenameR Lite from bim3lab.com and install it. It is free and needs no account and no card.
2. 02In Revit, open RenameR from the Bim3Lab tab and choose views or sheets.
3. 03Filter the list to the names you want to change.
4. 04Type what to find and what to replace it with. Wildcards work: * for any run of characters, ? for one. To strip "Copy 1", find " Copy 1" and replace it with nothing.
5. 05Check the preview: every new name is shown before anything changes.
6. 06Apply. Only the names in the preview change.

When you need more than find and replace

The full RenameR in the Bim3Lab Suite adds families and family types, a chain of rules applied in order (replace, prefix, suffix, running number), regular expressions, and rule sets saved into the project so the whole team uses the same naming convention.

RenameR, on video

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Questions