$re = '/(<(.*?\:)?(.*?)>)/mi';
$str = '/<string:name>/<path:id>/
/<name>/<path:id>/ # <--- Why this is not matching /{name}/{id}/
/<string:name>/<id>/';
$subst = "{\3}";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php