Rename Material

The Rename Material tool replaces text in the names of materials and material sets. For example, you can rename Concrete to Concrete C30/37 in the whole model, or only in the walls. The layers, their thicknesses and the rest of the material information stay as they are.

The material of an object is shown in read-only properties such as Name (material) and Layer set name (material), so you cannot rename a material by editing the property values. The tool replaces the text in the IFC material information of the objects and the properties follow.

There are also other ways to change materials:

• To replace the material of objects with another material, use the Set Material tool.
• To remove the material of objects, use the Delete Materials tool.

This tool only changes the material information defined by the IFC material system. If the model has property set properties that contain information related to materials, they are not changed.

How the text is matched

• The tool compares the text with each name separately, not with the whole value of the property. If the Name (material) property of an object shows Concrete-Insulation, the object has the two materials Concrete and Insulation. To rename the first one, use Concrete as the text to replace.
• An item such as Glazing:Glass in the Name (material) property has a part name and a material name, and these are also separate names. You can rename Glazing or Glass, but Glazing:Glass as the text to replace does not find anything.
• Upper and lower case letters are treated as different, so concrete does not find Concrete. Spaces count as well.
• The names of profiles are not changed.

After the run, the tool reports how many of the objects in the Target got a new name for their material. If the text is not found, this number is 0 and the model does not change. The tool does not report this as a warning.

Materials that other objects use as well

Only the materials of the objects in the Target change. If objects outside the Target use the same material or material set, the tool makes a copy with the new name for the objects in the Target, and the other objects keep the original. If only objects in the Target use it, it is renamed without a copy.

A copy does not get the property sets or the colors of the original material. If this matters, use a Target that includes all the objects that use the material.

The tool does not merge materials. If you rename a material to the name of another material that already exists, the model has two materials with the same name.

Settings

Target

Defines the objects whose materials are renamed. You can select, for example, the objects of an object class or a group. You can read more about selections in the Configuration Editor guide. The default value is all objects.

If the selection does not find any objects, the tool reports a warning and does not change the model.

An object can also have a material through its type object. This material is shown in the Name (type material) property. The tool does not rename it unless the Target includes the type object, and the default value does not include type objects.

Replace

Defines the text to replace. This setting is mandatory.

Replace In

Defines which names the text is replaced in. The default value is Both Material and Layer Set Name.

Only Material Name

Replace only in the material names and part names, which are shown in the Name (material) property.

Only Layer Set Name

Replace only in the names of the material sets, which are shown in the Layer set name (material) property. These can be layer sets, profile sets or constituent sets.

Both Material and Layer Set Name

Replace in both the material names and the names of the material sets.

Replace With

Defines the replacement text. If you leave it empty, the text is removed.

A material must keep its name. If a replacement would leave a material without a name, the tool reports an error and does not change the model. A material set can lose its name, so with Only Layer Set Name you can remove the names of the sets.

If the replacement text is the same as the text to replace, the tool reports a warning and does not change the model.

Replacement Logic

Defines how the text to replace is compared with the names. The default value is Whole Text.

Whole Text

Replace only when the whole name is the same as the text to replace. For example, Concrete finds the material Concrete but not the material Concrete C30/37.

Within text

Replace every occurrence of the text inside the names. For example, replacing Concrete with Beton changes Concrete C30/37 to Beton C30/37.

Release Notes

This tool was added in Simplebim 12.0 SR1