How to rename Many shapes or Groups in a content?

[JM2017]

It is a nightmare renaming for organizing shapes in AE!! especially when we have MANY contents or Groups in each shape layer;

what is your input or solution for that? since Adobe didn't provide us with a solution yet ;(

[Mylenium]

I'm sure there's a script for that on AEScripts.com. Otherwise there's really no good way to go about it. Unfortunately AE does not allow to change the default naming conventions before creating setups and you have to be careful along the way and always rename immediately.

Mylenium

[Mathias Moehl]

How exactly do you want to rename?

Automation Blocks comes with tools to search & replace in project item names and layer names. I just created another variant for you, which does the search & replace on the names of all selected layer properties. That will allow you to search & replace in a bunch of selected shape groups, for example.

You find this tool in the Community library at:

Layer Properties/Naming/Search & Replace in Selected Property Names

This is the user interface of the tool:

and this is the full code, if you want to modify it:

[JM2017]

OMG Mathias, you're taking me to another AE level!

tyvm cant wait to try it...

[Rick Gerard]

This can be a pain if you have converted complex vector layers (Illustrator Files) to shapes. The layer names in AI do not translate to a shape layer, and multiple groups can be formed. If that is your workflow, make sure you need to convert Vector Files to Shape layers. There are only a few reasons to do so. Most of the time, it is a waste of time, and the layers take longer to render.

Otherwise, when creating the shapes, you should name them as you go. If you don't name as you go, it's very easy to get lost. The same getting lost problem exists when manually rotoscoping with multiple masks, using Mocha AE, pre-composing, and even editing images in Photoshop. If you don't name as you go, it is easy to get lost.

[JM2017]

Exatly, I'm working on a map (country, stats, Provinces and districts...)