very thin objects

The smallest unit you can work with is 1, it's not that thin, but otherwise you have to use a 3D software and make a model. The other trick would be to use a keyframe_rope, and set a really small width on it, something like 0.5, I think it could work.

Quote from RaVaGe

The smallest unit you can work with is 1, it's not that thin, but otherwise you have to use a 3D software and make a model...

You don't HAVE TO make a model for something smaller than 1, but if you're working at this scale it's probably best to use a model anyway.

You can use alt to translate/rescale your object off the grid. Alternatively, you can rescale any brush with ctrl+M if you need more precision.

There's rounding errors involved when you work off the grid (this includes rotations), this may cause invalid brushes and weird faces, you should avoid that as much as possible.

But in this case if you want to make a rope you should just use keyframe_rope instead.

Quote from Klems

You can use alt to translate/rescale your object off the grid. Alternatively, you can rescale any brush with ctrl+M if you need more precision.

You can get into microbrush territory if you scale objects too small or go below 1u when translating with the alt key so you have to be careful with this...

Quote from Klems

You don't HAVE TO make a model for something smaller than 1, but if you're working at this scale it's probably best to use a model anyway.

You can use alt to translate/rescale your object off the grid. Alternatively, you can rescale any brush with ctrl+M if you need more precision.

There's rounding errors involved when you work off the grid (this includes rotations), this may cause invalid brushes and weird faces, you should avoid that as much as possible.

But in this case if you want to make a rope you should just use keyframe_rope instead.

Going smaller on the grid should always be avoided that's why I didn't talked about that trick

I would never go below 8 units on the grid unless you have stairs. You could probably find a rope model online

Quote from spence

You can get into microbrush territory if you scale objects too small or go below 1u when translating with the alt key so you have to be careful with this...

Quote from RaVaGe

Going smaller on the grid should always be avoided that's why I didn't talked about that trick

Yeah, that's what I said. To be honest I never had any issues working off the grid.

It did happen on goldsrc, but never on the source engine. As long as you don't do something stupid, like using world brushes.

I don't know the exact data structure used for brushes. Usually polyhedrons are caracterized by their faces, not their vertices. If theses faces are cut on the grid (= stored as integers), then it's fine. It doesn't matter if vertices are off the grid.

Even then, I don't know if rotations are stored as "rotations" or as "geometry changes". Same for translations. If it's the former then everything is fine, as long as you don't re-clip your brush after the rotation.

To put it simply, as long as you:

- use a cuboid brush first

- keep the clipping tool on the grid

- don't use the clipping tool after a rotation/translation

your brush SHOULD be valid and will show up in-game as it is in hammer.

Remember it's all theory, I can't know for sure.

What are you afraid of exactly? You can backup your map, there's autosave, instancing. The horrors of worldcraft are long gone. If all of this fails, the worse you have is an invalid brush or an invisible face.

Mind you, I will still avoid that as much as possible.

Quote from Muffin

I would never go below 8 units on the grid unless you have stairs. You could probably find a rope model online

Well that's just weird though. How do you make thin metal panels? Plywood? Vents?

Quote from Klems

Well that's just weird though. How do you make thin metal panels? Plywood? Vents?

I meant in general for the basic structure of things. Vents, wood, metal, stairs, those are ok. But like making a giant tower out of 8 unit brushes is pretty crazy.