Property Renamer

Engineering Tools — Property Renamer (00331)

What this tool does

One dialog that writes readable titles for three kinds of entity:

Properties — the title is built from the fields you tick: type, material, thickness, area, mass, laminate layup title and Ex/Ey, and CBUSH K1–K6.
Materials — tagged with Young’s modulus.
Connectors — renamed <master region> - <slave region> - <property>.

It replaces two older tools, Rename Properties and Materials and Connector Title Renamer, which are now folded into this one.

  Plate of AL 7075-T6 t=0.063
  Rod of 4130 Steel A=0.196
  PCOMP - Facesheet 8-ply t=0.044 Ex=7.8e6 Ey=7.8e6
  Bush K2=150000 K3=150000
  Top Skin - Rib Cap - Glue Rigid        (connector)

When you want it

Imported or wizard-built models. Generic titles say nothing; rename once and the property list reads like a parts list.
Before a hand-off or review. Thickness and material in the title make the model self-explaining in the Model Info tree and in selection lists.
Connector audits. With every connector titled by its two regions and its property, a wrong pairing or a missing property stands out.

How to use it

Open Custom Tools > Property > Sort / Rename / Color > Property Renamer.
Tick the property fields, CBUSH K values and material fields you want, and set Append and Decimals.
Under What to rename, enable any combination of Properties, Materials and Connectors, then click OK.
You get one selection prompt per enabled pass, in that order. Cancel a prompt to skip that pass.
The message window lists each connector rename and ends with a count of everything renamed. The dialog remembers your settings for next time.

Options

Option	Adds to the title	Applies to
Type	Rod, Bar, Tube, Beam, Bush, Shear, Membrane, Plate, Laminate or Mass	Those property types only; others get no type word
Material title	`of <material title>`	Properties with a material
Thickness	`t=` — mean of the four corner thicknesses FEMAP reports; for a laminate, the layup’s total thickness (a symmetric layup, LAM=SYM, counts both halves)	Plate, membrane, shear panel and laminate properties
Area	`A=`	Rod and bar properties
Mass	`m=`	Mass properties
PCOMP Ex/Ey	`Ex=7.7e6 Ey=5.1e6` — effective in-plane (membrane) moduli from classical lamination theory, 2 significant figures	Laminate properties
Layup title	`PCOMP - <layup title>` in place of the type word — the naming many translators use for laminates	Laminate properties whose layup has a title
K1 … K6	`K2=… K3=…` — only ticked K values that are non-zero	Bush (CBUSH) properties
E	`E=` modulus divided by 10⁶	Materials
Only rename unnamed/default matls	—	Materials: skips any material whose title is not blank, ISOTROPIC Material, ORTHOTROPIC Material or ANISOTROPIC Material
Append to existing title	Keeps the current title and adds the fields after it. Off = title rebuilt from scratch.	Properties and materials
Decimals	Rounding for t, A, m, K and E (default 3)	Not Ex/Ey

Property fields always appear in the order type, material, t, A, m, Ex/Ey, K.

Notes & limitations

Append off replaces the whole title. If none of the ticked fields applies to a property (a solid property with only Thickness ticked, say), that property keeps its old title — the tool never writes an empty one.
Append stacks. Every run with Append on adds the fields again. For materials, Only rename unnamed/default stops this: once tagged, a material no longer has a default title and is skipped next time.
E is divided by 10⁶. In a psi model aluminium reads E=10.3 (Msi). In an MPa model the same material reads E=0.07 — raise Decimals or leave E off.
Ex/Ey come from classical lamination theory: build the laminate A-matrix from the plies, invert it, Ex = 1 / (t_total * Ainv11). Ply materials must be isotropic or 2-D orthotropic with positive moduli; otherwise Ex/Ey are left out. Values are in model units with no unit label.
CBUSH K values are read from the PBUSH stiffness slots. The Bush type word and K values apply to FEMAP property type 6.
Decimals must be a whole number.
Connectors are always fully retitled — Append and the field checkboxes do not apply. A missing region or property shows as <no-master>, <no-slave> or <no-prop>, which is itself a useful audit flag.

Related tools

Bulk Property Renamer - Excel — rename properties from a spreadsheet when you want full control of every title.
Sort Properties — renumber properties by thickness, area, mass, I1, I2, J or EA.
List Property Summary — per-type property listing to check the values behind the titles.
Membrane / Plate / Laminate Converter — the lamination-theory helpers behind Ex/Ey come from this tool.
Randomize Region Colors and Regions to Groups — companions for the connector pass.