Grid Renamer

Renumber an entire grid set to match your firm's naming standard in one safe operation, avoiding the collisions that make manual grid renaming in Revit unreliable. Grid Renamer batch-renames grid elements in the active view according to a configurable naming scheme and sort direction. It handles the naming conventions used in most structural and architectural practices, resolves Revit's duplicate name constraint automatically, and shows a live preview of every proposed change before you commit. This tool is not listed elsewhere in the guide -- it lives in the Sheets panel because grid annotation is part of the sheet documentation workflow.

Orientation Detection

When you open Grid Renamer, it reads every grid in the active view and classifies each one as Horizontal, Vertical, or Diagonal. Classification uses the angle of the grid's curve direction vector relative to the project X axis. A grid within 15 degrees of horizontal is classified as Horizontal; within 15 degrees of vertical is classified as Vertical; anything else is Diagonal. Diagonal grids appear in the preview table but are not renamed by default -- you can manually reclassify them or assign individual overrides.

If you have grids selected before opening the tool, Grid Renamer pre-populates the selection with those grids and processes only them. If nothing is selected, the tool processes all non-pinned grids in the active view.

Naming Schemes

Each axis (horizontal and vertical) has its own independent naming scheme. Configure both independently.

All schemes support a prefix and a suffix applied to every generated name. For example, a Numeric scheme with prefix G- produces G-1, G-2, G-3. A skip list removes specific values from the sequence: configure I and O as skipped values to avoid confusion with 1 and 0.

Sort Directions

Grid Renamer sorts grids spatially by their curve midpoint before assigning names. Choose a sort direction for each axis independently:

Built-in Presets

Six read-only presets cover the most common grid naming standards. Select a preset to populate both axes instantly, then adjust as needed for your project.

Pin Management

Mark individual grids as pinned to exclude them from renaming. Pinned grids keep their current names, and the naming engine treats those names as occupied values that the sequence must skip around. For example, if grid E is pinned in an Alpha Upper sequence, the engine assigns A, B, C, D, then continues with F -- never producing a duplicate. Toggle pin state for any grid directly in the preview table.

This behavior is separate from Revit's own element pinning. A grid can be pinned in Grid Renamer without being pinned in the Revit model, and vice versa.

Conflict-Safe Two-Pass Rename Engine

Revit does not allow two grids to share the same name at any point during a transaction. A simple sequential rename would fail whenever the proposed new name for one grid collides with the current name of another. Grid Renamer avoids this with a two-pass approach:

1. Pass 1: rename every target grid to a unique temporary name (__GRIDRENAMER_TEMP_0001__, etc.).
2. Pass 2: rename every grid from its temporary name to its final proposed name.

Both passes execute inside a single Revit transaction. If any individual rename fails, the transaction rolls back completely, leaving the model unchanged. The operation appears as a single undo entry in the Revit undo stack.

Before execution, the conflict resolver checks whether any proposed name collides with a grid that is not part of the rename set (for example, a grid in a linked model or one you deliberately excluded). It also checks for duplicates within the proposed set itself. The preview table highlights conflicts in red and prevents execution until you resolve them.

Live Preview Table

The preview table updates in real time as you adjust the scheme, sort direction, skip list, or pins. Each row shows:

• The grid's current name
• The proposed new name (or the manual override if one is set)
• Orientation (Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal)
• Pin status
• Status tag: change, no_change, pinned, override, or conflict

Click any row in the Name column to set a manual override for that grid. Manual overrides take precedence over the generated sequence and are shown with an override status tag. Overrides are validated against the same conflict rules as generated names.

View Overlay

The archived PRD originally scoped an active-view overlay that would draw proposed labels on the canvas. In the current shipped modeless workflow, that overlay is not exposed from the main window, so the preview table is the supported pre-commit review surface.

Subgrid Handling

When a project contains subgrids (grids whose extents are controlled by a parent grid), Grid Renamer processes them as a distinct group. Subgrids are listed in the preview table with an indented label showing their parent. The tool renames subgrids independently or skips them, depending on your configuration.

Linked Grid Reading

Grid Renamer can read grid names from linked Revit models for coordination reference. Linked grids appear in the preview table as read-only rows so you can see how proposed names in the host model compare to the linked model's grid labels. Linked grids are never renamed.

Exporting the Rename Report

After previewing or executing a rename, export the full rename log as CSV, HTML, or XLSX. The report includes the grid element ID, old name, new name, orientation, group, pin status, and change status for every grid processed. The XLSX export uses a dependency-free OOXML writer built into the tool, so no external libraries are required.

How to use:

1. Open any plan or structural view containing the grids you want to rename.
2. Optionally pre-select specific grids in the model before launching.
3. Click Grid Renamer.
4. Select a built-in preset or configure the scheme manually for each axis.
5. Set sort directions, skip lists, prefixes, and suffixes as needed.
6. Review the live preview table. Pin any grids whose names must stay fixed.
7. For diagonal grids, either assign a manual override name or drag them to the horizontal or vertical group to include them in the sequence.
8. Resolve any conflicts shown in red before proceeding.
9. Click Rename to execute. The operation completes as a single undoable action.
10. Optionally export the rename report for project records.

When to use Grid Renamer vs. renaming grids manually:

Use Grid Renamer whenever more than three or four grids need to change. Manual renaming in Revit fails unpredictably when new names collide with existing names mid-sequence. Grid Renamer's two-pass engine is the only safe way to renumber a full grid set in one step.

Last updated: 2026-02-19