Due to CM issues:

I need to
(1) copy a class
(2) reset all references (e.g. occurrences on diagrams) from the original to the new class
(3) delete the old element and rename the new

... then continue doing that for lots of element.

Is there any automated way to do it?

/bear

A lot of things can be automated by VBA scripts calling COM API functions.
1. create a new class
2. copy all attributes, operations and so on
3. delete the old class, this also deletes all references
4. rename the new class