Change Strings has been updated last on 08.08.2025 to version number 3.0.0
Change Strings can batch change or rename most strings, meaning text, in Blackmagic design Fusion Studio and Fusion inside DaVinci Resolve. These strings are Tool/Node names, expressions, filepaths and all other text inputs. Simply write the text you want to replace (or delete) into the designated Search for and Replace with Text fields. Make sure you have all the tools selected on which you want the search and replace operation to be performed and press OK.
Common tasks like replacing Loaders Filepaths can be greatly accelerated and increasing versions is as simple as clicking a button when using the Versioning Tab.
Change Strings also features a Toolbox Tab, allowing you to easily launch your own scripts or the Internal Relatify Paths script.
You can download this script here, or in the Downloads area on the next page. There you will also find a changelog and legacy versions. Change Strings 3 is also available through Reactor.
Change Strings 3 is a major update. Previous users are encouraged to read the changelog or watch the new features overview.
Download on Gumroad:
Download onLearn here how to install scripts in Fusion or DaVinci Resolve.
Make sure to check out the Advanced Searches as they will help you find and replace much quicker. For example, to remove the annoying numbers that Fusions appends to tool names when they are copied.
I created this script for my own personal use and learning scripting for Fusion, but after putting more and more functionality into it, I decided to make it publicly available for free. Feature requests are welcomed as they will help me improve the script and ultimately the Fusion experience for all of us. If you want to support me by donating you can download (and donate) using Gumroad.
In the following Video you can see how to use Change Strings to work smarter. (This is using Change Strings 1 but the concepts are still applicable to the newest release)
Or read about changing Names and staying organized here. And a separate blog post about changing filepaths and filenames can be found here.
Page Contents
Page 1 – Manual
Change Strings Main Window
About Button
The About Button will open a new window with some information about the script and some advanced settings. Jump to the About window explanation by clicking here.
Search for and Replace with Text field
( Jump down to removing numbers ↧ )
As the names suggest, these are the text fields where the user (you) can write in the search you want the script to perform.
Both the Search For and Replace with fields save a history of up to five previous searches. You can increase and decrease this limit in the About Window.
Click the X Button to clear the field. Shift + Click will recover the previous input.
Dynamic Variables
A predefined list of variables have been made available when the Use Shortcodes Toggle is enabled. These are designed to make it easy to add Prefix or Postfixes as well as complete many file management tasks with ease.
Type a “%” into one of the Text input fields to see what variables can be used. Below is also a table with all current variables. Let me know if there are any more I should add.
| Variable | Turns into | Common usecase |
| %all | the complete input string | Can be used to add Prefixes or Postfixes |
| %compName | the name of the composition | To modify a saver with the comp name |
| %compNameEx | the name of the composition including the .comp extension | When adding metadata |
| %compPath | the complete Path of the composition | When adding metadata |
| %compFolder | The path to the comp excluding the comp name | Replacing Saver filepaths |
| %compFPS | The Frames per second specified in the composition settings | When adding metadata |
| %compH | The default Height specified in the composition settings | When adding metadata |
| %compW | The default Width specified in the composition settings | When adding metadata |
| %date4Y | The current date with YYYYMMDD formatting | When versioning savers with the date |
| %date2Y | The current date with YYMMDD formatting | When versioning savers with the date |
| %toolName | The current tools name | Adding a tools name to Text |
| %fileName | The filename without extension (only works on file paths) | Changing a filename |
| %fullName | The filename with extension (only works on file paths) | Changing a filename |
| %filePath | The file path of a string without the filename (only works on file paths) | Unifying the File path of several tools |
| %ext | The extension of the file | Changing the extension on several Savers at once |
| %sNum | The Sequence Number of a filepath (MyRender_0001.exr) | Changing the Sequencer Number Padding on several Savers |
Shortcode Searches
Change Strings was written in Lua, this means that we have access to additional search shortcuts that are built into the programming language.
%a | all letters individually | %a+ | all groups of letters as a single search |
%d | all digits | %d+ | all groups of digits as a single search |
%l | all lower case letters | %l+ | all groups of lower case letters as a single search |
%u | all upper case letters | %u+ | all groups of upper case letters as a single search |
%p | punctuation characters | %p+ | all groups of punctuation characters as a single search |
%s | space characters | %s+ | all groups of space characters as a single search |
| ^ | signals start of the string for example: | ^%d+ | 2025_File20_v015 |
| $ | signals end of the string for example: | %d+$ | 2025_File20_v015 |
These shortcodes also work the other way around. For example, “%S” (uppercase letter) would search for all characters that are NOT spaces. And “%D” would search for all characters that are NOT digits. The Be Case Sensitive Toggle needs to be enabled for the opposite searches to work.
If you are familiar with Lua you might know about the shortcode “.”. This would usually force Lua to replace all characters. This was disabled and instead changed to search and replace for dots “.” instead. I believe this is the wanted behavior in most cases.
Removing the numbers from copied nodes
Everyone using Fusion knows that when you copy a node, Fusion will append a number to the name. This is important so that each node has a unique name, but it can be annoying to remove them, especially if you start to copy copies. Let’s look at the following (horrific) example. I use the Shortcode Searches to remove the digits. These are our nodes:
We simply search for “_%d” and then for “%d” and will replace it with nothing which will give use this:
Much better! If you enable the Space Splitter Toggle you can do this in one go by typing “_%d %d” into the search.
Switch Button
This button will switch the Inputs from the Search for or Replace with fields.
Replace in Settings
Filepaths
Checking this will mean that Change Strings searches in all File path Inputs it finds on the selected nodes. This includes every node. Loaders, Savers, FBX/ABC importers, uLoader, MaterialX, uTextures, Plugins, Macros etc.
Names
Checking this will make Change Strings search and (if it finds) replace the patterns in all the names of the currently selected nodes. This includes pipe routers but excludes Modifier names, as those are “not selected” when you are selecting a node. To include Modifiers enable the Include Modifiers Setting.
Remember that Fusion does not support spaces in tool/node names. They are not changed to “_” either. Many other characters like “#, *, ~” are not supported in tool names as well.
Expressions
Checking this will make Change Strings search and (if it finds) replace the patterns in all the Expressions of the currently selected nodes. This excludes Modifier Expressions or the Expression Modifier, as those are “not selected” when you are selecting a node. To include Modifiers enable the Include Modifiers Setting.
Styled Text
Checking this will make Change Strings search and (if it finds) replace the patterns in all the Styled Text Textboxes of the currently selected nodes. This includes the native Fusion tools like Text+, Text3D and MultiText. But any node that includes Text inputs called StyledText will be found.
FBX ABC Name
Checking this will make Change Strings search and (if it finds) replace the patterns in all the Object Names of the currently selected Alembic or FBX nodes. This is especially helpful because you cannot change the Object Names by hand without the use of scripting. Sometimes Fusion will struggle when changing the Object Identifier in the Alembic or FBX nodes and not properly load them. If this happens to you, simply save and reopen the composition.
All Text Inputs
This Toggle enables Change Strings to search for ALL Text Inputs on the selected nodes. This is great for the Custom tools or the Expression Modifier.
QuickSelect
Change Strings runs on selected nodes. The QuickSelect Buttons make it easy to quickly select common tool types.
The QuickSelection feature makes this script a great alternative to the popular Change Paths script. Since you get all the benefits of Change Strings find and replace operation with the ease of quickly doing this on all Loaders/Savers/etc.
Loaders
This will select all Loaders in your composition.
Shift + Click to add Loaders to your current selection. Ctrl + Click to remove Loaders from your current selection.
L + S
This will select all Loaders and Savers in your composition.
Shift + Click to add Loaders and Savers to your current selection. Ctrl + Click to remove Loaders and Savers from your current selection.
Savers
This will select all Savers in your composition.
Shift + Click to add Savers to your current selection. Ctrl + Click to remove Savers from your current selection.
FBX ABC USD
This will select all Alembic, FBX and USD tools in your composition. This includes the Alembic and FBX import tools, uLoader, uTexture, uMaterialX and the FBX Export tool.
Shift + Click to add ABC/FBX/USD tools to your current selection. Ctrl + Click to remove ABC/FBC tools from your current selection.
Search
This will select all nodes that contain the pattern you typed into the Search for field.
Shift + Click to add the search to your current selection. Ctrl + Click to remove the search from your current selection.
Previous
This will restore the selection you had before you clicked on one of the QuickSelect Buttons. This is only updated once as long as the same Change Strings Window is open. This means you can wildly click on the different Buttons but Change Strings will always remember the selection you had before using the QuickSelect feature.
As with the other QuickSelect Buttons, you can Shift + Click to add the previous selection to your current selection or Ctrl + Click to remove them.
Settings
Be Case Sensitive
Enabling this will force Change Strings to only replace patterns that have the same capital and lower letters as your Search for Inputs.
Disabling this means that Change Strings will ignore capital or lowercase letters in its search. It will not convert everything lowercase and the replacement will keep its correct upper case letters.
Space Splitter
This was the default behavior of Change Strings prior to version 2. When activated, instead of searching for one pattern, it will search for multiple patterns in one session. The different patterns are defined by spaces. This setting should be deactivated, for example, if your search contains spaces and should be treated as a single search.
General Search Behavior when Space Splitter is on
Let’s say we have this set of nodes in our flow and want to perform a very simple Search and Replace Operation.
First, we decide to get rid of the long names. We want to change all “Element” into a simple “E”. Change Strings will simply search for every tool that has “Element” in its name and change it to “E”.
Easy enough. This will result in this:
But let’s do a more interesting example. We want to change all “Merge” into “Combine” and the first Merge7 should be called “Combine_A” and the second “Combine_B”. For this, we will put this into Change Strings (I have colored the different Searches to more easily show the concept):
I have separated the different searches with empty spaces in between the different patterns. As you can see, Change Strings will use the first Search for Input and replace it with the first Replace with Input, then it will use the second input, and so forth. Notice that “7” and “7_1” are two completely different patterns for the Search and Replace operation which we can use to our advantage. But, we need to make sure, that it changes “7_1” before changing “7”. Otherwise, it would change “Merge7_1” to “Combine_A_1” before searching for “7_1”.
(Sounds more complicated than it is. If you’ve ever used a Search and Replace tool in another software, you will understand this.)
This results in these names:
You may be wondering what happens if you search for more patterns than you want to replace. And yes, this is possible as well. Let us assume we want to change “Text” to “Heading” and we want both “Blue” and “Red” to be called “Background”. This is what we would need to put into Change Strings:
As you can see, if there are more Search for Inputs than Replace with Inputs available, Change Strings will simply use the last available Replace with Input. This would result in these node names:
It’s important to note, that Fusion can not have two nodes with the same name. This is why the second “Background_E_1” has gotten an additional “1”. This is the default Fusion renaming behavior. We could use Change Strings to replace “11” with “2” but in this case it would be easier to just rename it ourselves.
Also, if you put in more Replace with Inputs than there are Search for Inputs, then Change Strings will simply ignore the Inputs that don’t have a corresponding Search Input.
Include Modifiers
Attention: This is a Tristate Checkbox. Meaning it supports 3 states instead of the normal 2! These are unchecked, checked, and partially checked!.
Enabling this will include or search only in connected Modifiers of the currently selected tools.
Allow Popups
This will allow Fusion to display the Trim Pop Up Dialogue when changing Loader clips that have different lengths. This is great if you need to reset the Loaders Trim Points.
Stay open
This will force Change Strings to stay open and await new commands.
OK and Cancel Button
OK
This should be self-explanatory. OK will run the script on all selected nodes. Once it’s finished, it will save the Change Strings settings.
Cancel
This will simply close the window.
Versioning Tab
One of the most common questions about Fusion is, how to change several Loaders at once. And often we are talking about increasing version numbers. Change Strings was always capable of that, but you had to type something in the Search for and Replace with fields. It was quick, but it could be quicker.
The Versioning Tab is designed for exactly this: Quick version changes.
Clicking on one of the buttons will increase or decrease the version number on the selected Loaders, Savers, FBX/ABC tools and any other nodes with File path inputs. No need to type anything.
Note that it expects a “v” to prefix the version number AND consistent padding. For example “MyFile.v001.exr” would increase to “MyFile.v002.exr”. A wrong change could occur if your filename would be “MyFile.v10.exr” and you wanted to go down to “MyFile.v9.exr”. Change Strings would change this to “MyFile.v09.exr”.
Text Box Tab
The Text Box Tab is designed for replacing text that comes from outside of Fusion, or from Fusion inputs that aren’t supported. Like the Custom Tool text fields. Other than that it will work exactly like replacing in Names, Expressions, or Filepaths.
The Copy, Paste, and Move Buttons are designed for convenient usage and the Text Box. And mostly self-explanatory.
Paste Button
This will paste your current clipboard content into the Text In field. It will save the previous content of the text field and it can be recovered by Shift + Clicking on the Paste Button.
←Move Button
This will paste the content of the Text Out field into the Text In field. It will save the previous content of the text field and it can be recovered by Shift + Clicking on the Move Button.
Copy Button
This will copy the content of the Text Out field into your clipboard so you can easily paste it wherever it came from. It will save the previous content of your clipboard and it can be recovered by Shift + Clicking on the Copy Button.
Toolbox Tab
The Toolbox Tab allows for quick Script launching Especially helpful in conjunction with the QuickSelect Buttons and Tool scripts.
To add a button, hold Shift and click the +Button.
To edit a Button, hold Shift and click the Button you want to edit.
To delete a Button, hold Ctrl and click the Button you want to delete.
Relatify Paths
Change Strings ships with one internal script called Relatify Paths. Once added to the Toolbox, you can use it to make all file paths relative to the composition. This is necessary for properly archiving comps, working across computers or in teams.
About Window
The About Window features some (very necessary) self-promotion as well as a little help.
Here you can increase or decrease the history amount of the search and replace inputs.
And change where the Toolbox Buttons are saved. You can save the Button configuration to a shared drive if you want to share the buttons between your team.
Print Actions
This is disabled by default and means that few actions of Change Strings will be visible in the console.
Enabling it will give prompt Change Strings to print out all actions to the Console. This is helpful for debugging. If you encounter a bug, please send me a screenshot, or the text of the console.
This should explain everything, but of course, If you have any questions or requests, message me.
On the next page is the Download link, Changelog and some more background information
