Rename Objects

As your drawings become more complex, you can rename objects to keep the names meaningful or to avoid conflicts with names in other drawings you have inserted or attached. The Name property is used to get the current name or change the name of a named object.

You can rename any named object except those reserved by AutoCAD, for example, layer 0 or the CONTINUOUS linetype.

Names can be up to 255 characters long. In addition to letters and numbers, names can contain spaces (although AutoCAD removes spaces that appear directly before and after a name) and any special character not used by Microsoft^® Windows^® or AutoCAD for other purposes. Special characters that you cannot use include less-than and greater-than symbols (< >), forward slashes and backslashes (/ \), quotation marks ("), colons (:), semicolons (;), question marks (?), commas (,), asterisks (*), vertical bars (|), equal signs (=), and single quotes ('). You also cannot use special characters created with Unicode fonts.

Rename a layer

This example creates a copy of layer "0" and renames the new layer to “MyLayer”.

VB.NET

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

<CommandMethod("RenameLayer")> _

Public Sub RenameLayer()

  '' Get the current document and database

  Dim acDoc As Document = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument

  Dim acCurDb As Database = acDoc.Database

  '' Start a transaction

  Using acTrans As Transaction = acCurDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction()

      '' Returns the layer table for the current database

      Dim acLyrTbl As LayerTable

      acLyrTbl = acTrans.GetObject(acCurDb.LayerTableId, _

                                   OpenMode.ForWrite)

      '' Clone layer 0 (copy it and its properties) as a new layer

      Dim acLyrTblRec As LayerTableRecord

      acLyrTblRec = acTrans.GetObject(acLyrTbl("0"), _

                                      OpenMode.ForRead).Clone()

      '' Change the name of the cloned layer

      acLyrTblRec.Name = "MyLayer"

      '' Add the cloned layer to the Layer table and transaction

      acLyrTbl.Add(acLyrTblRec)

      acTrans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(acLyrTblRec, True)

      '' Save changes and dispose of the transaction

      acTrans.Commit()

  End Using

End Sub

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;

[CommandMethod("RenameLayer")]

public static void RenameLayer()

  // Get the current document and database

  Document acDoc = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument;

  Database acCurDb = acDoc.Database;

  // Start a transaction

  using (Transaction acTrans = acCurDb.TransactionManager.StartTransaction())

      // Returns the layer table for the current database

      LayerTable acLyrTbl;

      acLyrTbl = acTrans.GetObject(acCurDb.LayerTableId,

                                   OpenMode.ForWrite) as LayerTable;

      // Clone layer 0 (copy it and its properties) as a new layer

      LayerTableRecord acLyrTblRec;

      acLyrTblRec = acTrans.GetObject(acLyrTbl["0"],

                                      OpenMode.ForRead).Clone() as LayerTableRecord;

      // Change the name of the cloned layer

      acLyrTblRec.Name = "MyLayer";

      // Add the cloned layer to the Layer table and transaction

      acLyrTbl.Add(acLyrTblRec);

      acTrans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(acLyrTblRec, true);

      // Save changes and dispose of the transaction

      acTrans.Commit();