Editing tips

There's a new feature up on the editing page showing quick editing tips- if you have any, please post them here or use this form. Thanks :smile:

can't see them :S where abouts on the page are they?

[edit] slaps myself, found it!

Press Ctrl+A to reset the 4 views in Hammer back to their default equal sizes.

If you want to concentrate on a single view press Shift+Z to focus the entire workspace on one view.

Is there a full list we can view so none are repeated or do you authenticate them first?

Press Ctrl+E in Hammer to focus all 3 grid views on the selected object. (very important)

Save often (Ctrl+S) and keep backup RMF's; Hammer can become unstable time to time and crashes once in a while, sometimes even erasing maps!

In Vertex Manipulation mode, select a yellow midpoint and use Ctrl+F to create a new vertice. Alternatively, you can also select two midpoints and use Ctrl+F to split a face.

EDIT: Might be handy to have a little link next to the box to display a list of all the random tips, in case people want to browse through all of them.

A short list of tips I would have found greatly useful in one concentrated list:

"Shift + Drag" brush cloning: unimaginable productivity gain.

"Ctrl + M" with a brush selected allows you to move, scale, or rotate brushes with exact numerical values

"Alt + E" with a set of vertecies selected allows vertex scaling

The entity "compass" is oriented to the XY view

Texture property cloning: select a face with the texture application tool (Crl +A), and right click on another face to copy the texture and all it's properties (except alignment e.g. "too world" or "too face")

Select a brush or a group of brushes and use [Ctrl]+L or [Ctrl]+I to flip it horizontally or vertically. Very useful when you want to create symmetric copies of objects.

Thanks all :smile: There's a link above the box now that lets you view them all.

Never rotate a solid manually; the vertexes will all be skew whiff. Instead, use the rotation tool, (Control+M) and you can rotate in which ever plain necessary.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

read the manual.

it has some cool tips like;

<H1>Hotkey Reference</H1>
Tools

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Shift+S - Pointer Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+G - Magnify Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+C - Camera Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+E - Entity Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+B - Block Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+A - Texture App Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+T - Apply Current Texture
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+D - Decal Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+X - Clipping Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+V - Vertex Manipulation Tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+P - Path Tool
  
  </LI>

Clipboard/Selection

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+C - copy objects to clipboard (also ctrl+insert)
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+V - paste objects from clipboard (also shift+insert)
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+X - cut objects to clipboard (also shift+del)
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+E - center on selection (vertex/object) in all views
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+Q - clear selections
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>PgUp - previous selection in "hit" list
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>PgDn - next selection in "hit" list
  
  </LI>

Grid

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  [ - grid lower
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>] - grid higher
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+R - toggle grid on/off
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+W - toggle snap to grid
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>p - (with mouse cursor in 3D view) toggle 3D grid on and off
  
  </LI>

Grouping

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+G - group objects
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+U - ungroup objects
  
  </LI>

Carving/Hollowing

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+Shift+C - carve
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+H - hollow
  
  </LI>

Creating Objects

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Enter - create object drawn with block/entity tool
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Alt+Shift+C - insert original prefab
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+R - create prefab with selected objects
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+T - create entity with selected objects; to add objects to an existing entity, select it and the objects and hit Ctrl+T (you will be prompted)
  
  </LI>

Other Object Operations

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+B - snap selected objects to grid (based on bounding box)
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Alt+Enter - selected object's properties
  
  </LI>

File Stuff

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+N - new file
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+O - open file
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+S - save file
  
  </LI>

Undo/Redo

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+Z - undo
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+Y - redo
  
  </LI>

2D Views

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+I - flip vertical
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+L - flip horizontal
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Tab - switch view types (top/side/front)
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>+/- - zoom in/out (hold Ctrl to synchronize all 2D views)
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>1 to 9 - preset zoom levels
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Space - hold space and left mouse button to drag view
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Alt - disable snap to grid while dragging with the mouse
  
  </LI>

3D View

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Space - While holding the spacebar:
  
  <UL>
  <LI class=mvd-P>
  holding the left mouse button allows you to rotate your angle of view in any direction, while the viewing point remains stationary.
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>holding the right mouse button will allow you to move left, right, up, and down while keeping the viewing angle constant.
  
  </LI>

<LI class=mvd-P>
Space+Shift - While holding the spacebar and Shift:

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  the left mouse button acts the same as above.
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>the right mouse button allows you to move forward and backward, as well as from side to side.
  
  </LI>

<LI class=mvd-P>
z - Pressing the (lowercase) z puts the editor 3D view into its new "noclip" mode (this mode can be disabled in the 3D options dialog)

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  the mouse acts like +mlook is on (moving it around will change the player's direction of focus).
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>W - forward
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>S - backward
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>A - strafe left
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>D - strafe right
  
  </LI>

<LI class=mvd-P>
Shift+Right-mouse-click - will select an entire brush and bring up the 3D View context menu, as above.

<LI class=mvd-P>p - (with mouse cursor in 3D view) toggle 3D grid on and off

<LI class=mvd-P>o - (with mouse cursor in 3D view) display frames per second and yaw/pitch of camera.

</LI></UL>
Morph Tool

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl+F - split faces (vertex manipulation) - must have two edges or vertices selected
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Alt+E - vertex scaling
  
  </LI>

Selection Tool

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Ctrl - hold Ctrl and click to select multiple objects
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift - hold Shift when rotating to constrain rotation to 15 degrees; hold Shift when moving an object to create a copy (clone) of that object
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>(drag) - hold left mouse button and drag to select with a box; press Enter to select objects hitting the box, or press Shift+Enter to select objects only entirely within the box.
  
  </LI>

Camera Tool

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Shift - create a new camera by holding Shift and dragging with the left mouse button.
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>PgUp - cycle to the previous camera position
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>PgDn - cycle to the next camera position
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Delete - delete the current camera position
  
  </LI>

Clipper Tool

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Enter - perform clip
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl - hold Ctrl and drag with the left mouse button to move both handles of the clipper
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift - hold Shift and drag with the left mouse button to create a new clip plane without performing the previous clip.
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>o - (with mouse cursor in 2D view) toggle clip sizes on and off
  
  </LI>

Miscellaneous

• <LI class=mvd-P>
  Alt+B - export again
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+A - auto-size 4 views to center
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift - (while in Texture Application mode) select entire object
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+L - texture lock
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Shift+Z - maximize/restore view
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Ctrl+M - transform dialog
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Alt+P - check map for errors
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>F9 - run map
  
  <LI class=mvd-P>Escape - abort current tool/mouse operation (drag/drop)</LI>

[edit] the quick tip is......

fishy said:
read the manual.

[/edit]

Fishy, that isn't very "quick". It's more like a week-long omnibus.

• Check the "default to 15 degree rotations" option from Tools > Options > 2d Views options, now you have a snap on your rotations, to turn this off, just hold down Shift and rotate.

• Compile and play test your maps often, the more time you spend on an area the more it will show in the end.

• Sometimes, spending an extra day aligning a texture or tweaking multi_manager timers can make or brake your map.

(hopefully i haven't repeated any of the posts )

fishy said:
[edit] the quick tip is......

fishy said:
read the manual.

[/edit]

the best advice i can think of, and the one most likely to be overlooked.. :sad:

• Sometimes, spending an extra day aligning a texture or tweaking multi_manager timers can make or brake your map.

If it takes you day to align a texture then maybe you should consider drooling as a hobby. :smile:

Alien_Sniper said:

• Sometimes, spending an extra day aligning a texture or tweaking multi_manager timers can make or brake your map.

If it takes you day to align a texture then maybe you should consider drooling as a hobby. :smile:

if it takes a day, someone waited way to long :sad:

Some of those manual entries don't look right...as in they're for the older versions...

Orpheus said:

Alien_Sniper said:

• Sometimes, spending an extra day aligning a texture or tweaking multi_manager timers can make or brake your map.

If it takes you day to align a texture then maybe you should consider drooling as a hobby. :smile:

if it takes a day, someone waited way to long :sad:

LOL @ tripple quote :eek:

I ment spending a day working on the entire map or maps

not one entity... that's strange, even for me :smile:

and

*CLIP that nasty architecture that blocks movement!