I would recommend downloading EnergyPlus Python https://pypi.org/project/eppy/. You can typically load in the IDF into a Jupyter notebook (https://jupyter.org/) and hopefully find a method to change large chunks of text in the IDF automatically.
Eppy description: "You can programmatically navigate, search, and modify EnergyPlus idf files using eppy."
You can "Make a large number of changes in an idf file with a few lines of eppy code."
"Use conditions and filters when making changes to an idf file"; in this case, based on the WCBOVEN condition.
Make changes to multiple idf files! You mentioned "several" IDFs.
You need these lines to load the IDF:
import sys
pathnameto_eppy = 'c:/eppy'
pathnameto_eppy = '../'
sys.path.append(pathnameto_eppy)
loop through several IDFs?
from eppy import modeleditor
from eppy.modeleditor import IDF
iddfile = "../eppy/resources/iddfiles/Energy+V7_2_0.idd" #replace with your version of E+ here
fname1 = "../eppy/resources/idffiles/V_7_2/smallfile.idf" #replace with your version of E+ and IDF name (smallfile replacement)
IDF.setiddname(iddfile)
idf1 = IDF(fname1)
Look for an eppy method/function to delete all objects based on WCBOVEN in object name condition. Another option may be to write an E+ measure to do this instead, if you are generating your model through OpenStudio/PAT or another GUI that supports E+ measures. You can follow this post for that strategy: https://unmethours.com/question/29576...