Retain object names after join/separate

Support Modeling
#1

Guys, does anyone happen to know how you can retain object names after joining them together and separate them back? Alternatively, is there a better approach to edit multiple object’s vertices at the same time?

I have 20 objects with a particular name. I need to export them as separate objects for the target application (names are important for automation). Very often I need to alter vertices of all of the objects at the same time. As far as I know, you cannot edit multiple objects at the same time, so you have to join them to do that. But doing so and separating afterwards (also manual, very annoying, suggestions welcome) will not retain the object names as before.

Much appreciated.

#2

Short of writing a script to automate the renaming, there’s no way to do this directly that I know of, since Joining essentially destroys the identity of the original 20 items as Object datablocks. However, an indirect workaround might be possible, if a bit arcane.

  1. Create a duplicate set of your 20 objects and Join them into a single object, call it the “Mesh Edit Master” or some such
  2. Do your mesh editing on the Mesh Edit Master
  3. Dupe the edited Mesh Edit Master, and Separate this duplicate
  4. For each original object, go into Object Data and select the Mesh data of the corresponding edited, duped & separated mesh

Basically what you are doing is switching the originals’ Mesh datablocks to the edited versions. This does not alter the Object datablock in terms of the Object name. This is still a manual, Object-by-Object process, but not as time-consuming as renaming. It also preserves the Mesh Edit Master so you can skip re-Joining for a new edit to the group. The edited dupes can be deleted once the Mesh data has been transferred to the originals.

Not a great improvement in efficiency, but some, and others may have better ideas.

#3

another way might be to add a specific object properties where you could add the object’s name!

salutations

#4

Thanks for the suggestions. Chipmasque, that does indeed decrease the effort, thanks, also a tad less tedious/error prone this way.