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UnrealED Tools Index

This section of DukeED.com documents all of UnrealED's tools on the left toolbar.  UnrealED comes with no help files so use this as your guide to what all of these buttons do.

This is very image heavy and might take a while to load, but it should go quickly once it's cached...

Aside from the buttons here, there are other tools in the editor as well.  To see what they are and how they work visit the other tools page.

 

UnrealED Tools

 

This is the UnrealED Toolbar.  Click on a button to see what it does.

MoveMove Camera

When this is selected, you move your view around, as well as select and move objects. You should select this tool when you arent doing anything else, or are moving objects around.

ZoomZoom Camera

This tool zooms your view around in funky ways. It could be useful if you wanted to move something very quickly, however I never found a good use for it. I always just kick up the speed to 3 when I want to do something speedy.

AddAdd Brush

This tool adds a regular brush to the world. In UnrealED you start with solid null space and carve into it (create play space) by subtracting (see the subtract button) brushes from the world. Inside the subtracted space, you can ADD brushes. For example, you can create a giant cube of player space by subtracting a large cube. Then inside of this cube is playable space. Inside you can ADD brushes. Adding brushes in null space is pointless, and may cause errors.

Use this by positioning your red builder brush where you want to add the brush (being very careful not to place it where it would cause an error - see tutorials) then press the add brush tool's button.

rotateRotate Brush

Use this tool to rotate your brush. When this tool is selected, you rotate your brush by selecting it, then pressing and holding the control button. While holding the control button you can rotate the brush in different directions depending on which view you select, and whether you use the left or right mouse button. Be sure to check all of the views when rotating your brush.

sheerSheer Brush

This tool is used to sheer your brush. With this tool selected, select your brush, then press and hold the control button. While holding the control button, press and hold either the left or right mouse buttons and drag in the direction you want to sheer. This can be a useful tool in making things like slopes, or slanted poles. This picture shows how it works.

Sheer: Diagram

In my experiances with sheering, it worked fine, but UnrealED sometimes had bugs in displaying sheered brushes in the 2D view. They existed fine in the 3D world, but dissapeared sometimes in 2D.

subtractSubtract Brush

This tool subtracts a regular brush from the world. In UnrealED you start with solid null space and carve into it (create play space) by subtracting brushes from the world. With this tool you can create play space. You can also subtract from a brush that you have added.

Use this by positioning your red builder brush where you want to subtract the brush (being very careful not to place it where it would cause an error - see tutorials) then press the subtract brush tool's button.

scaleScale Brush

This tool scales your brush bigger or smaller. Select this tool then select your brush. Press and hold control, and size the brush by dragging the mouse while either pressing the left or right mouse button. I prefer the snapscale tool however, because it will always snap your brush to the grid, avoiding any errors that can be caused by being even slightly off of where you want your brush to be. See the Snapscale Brush tool for more info. If you want to only make your brush taller or wider, but not scale every direction, see the Stretch Brush tool.

stretchStretch Brush

This tool is like the scale brush. But instead of scaling all dimensions, you can stretch your brush in only one dimension. Make it taller without making it any wider for example. Use this tool by selecting your brush, pressing and holding control, and dragging the mouse with either the left or right button pressed.

intersectBrush Intersection

When you need to build more complex brushes than you can make with UnrealED's primitives (Cone, Cube, Sphere, etc), or if you want to copy and paste something thats made out of more than one brush and put it lots of places, use the Brush Intersection tool. How this works is that you put your red builder brush around what you want to intersect, or "capture". Completely surrounding what you want to capture without having anything else that you don't want, including walls, in your selection - Brush Intersection "captures" everything that is SOLID (or parts of brushes that were ADDs) within your red brush.  Brush Deintersection does the opposite. Press the Brush Intersection tool. The surrounding red brush should turn into the shape of what it was surrounding. For the visual approach, look at the picture below:

Brush Intersection: Diagram

snapscaleSnapscale Brush

This tool works just like the Scale Brush tool, except that the brush will always snap to the grid with this tool. I prefer to use this tool since precision is key in UnrealED. If your brush is off just a little and you add/subtract in the wrong place, bad things can happen to your level. You can always undo things you do and delete erroneous brushes however, so don't get too worried. Usage: Select this tool then select your brush. Press and hold control, and size the brush by dragging the mouse while either pressing the left or right mouse button.

selectallpolysSelect All Polygons

This tool selects all the surfaces in your 3D View.  So if you wanted to apply one texture to every single surface in your level, you would use this button.  I have no idea why on earth you would want to do that though :)  This tool has no special functions, just press it and it highlights every surface in your level.

deintersectBrush Deintersection

When you need to build more complex brushes than you can make with UnrealED's primitives (Cone, Cube, Sphere, etc), or if you want to copy and paste something thats made out of more than one brush and put it lots of places, use the Brush Intersection or Deintersection tools. How this works is that you put your red builder brush around what you want to deintersect, or "capture". Completely surrounding what you want to capture without having anything else that you don't want, including walls, in your selection - Brush Deintersection "captures" everything that is FREE SPACE, that is thing that are NOT solid (or parts of brushes that were SUBTRACTs) within your red brush.  Brush Intersection does the opposite. Press the Brush deintersection tool. The surrounding red brush should turn into the shape of what it was surrounding.  See the Brush Intersection diagram above to see how it works, keeping in mind that deintersection captures what is space, and intersection captures what is solid.

selectallactorsSelect All Actors

This tool is used to select EVERYTHING in your level.  When you press this button, every single thing in your level is selected, every brush, every light, every zoneinfo, 3D object, anything.  You *could* use this to completely clear your level, however I see no real use for this button.

selectallinsideSelect All Actors Inside Brush

This tool could be fairly useful, however I never have employed its duties.  When you press this tool, every actor that is inside the red builder brush will be selected.  This could be used for example if you had a whole bunch of actors in a particular area you wanted to delete or edit the properties of.

Select All Inside Brush

addspecialAdd Special Brush

This tool is used to add special types of brushes.  Transparencies, decorations, sheets, water, and other things can be added with this tool.  Rather than doing a regular Add Brush to world, press this tool when you want to make a special brush with properties that can be selected from the menu that opens:

Add Special BrushDropdown

selectnoneSelect None

This tool shouldn't require much explanation.   If you have anything selected, it deselects it.  You could possibly click this button just to make sure you don't have anything chosen before moving your red brush, as sometimes I'll accidentally move a light into the next zip code because I didn't check before dragging.

invertselectionInvert Actor Selection

Another tool that deals with selection.   This tool, when pressed, will invert your selection.  That means whatever you have selected will be deselected, and everything that wasn't selected already will be selected.

moverAdd Moveable Brush

This tool adds a mover.  Rather than doing a regular Add Brush to world, press this tool when you want to make a brush that can move.   Any type of moving object would be a mover.  Doors, elevators, moving platforms, etc. are all movers.  When the mover is added, it will appear as a purple wireframe in both 2D and 3D views.  You edit the properties of the mover by right clicking the wireframe and going to its properties.  The tool itself has no special functions.

replaceselectedbrushReplace Selected Brushes

This tool replaces the brushes that you select with whatever characteristics your red builder brush has.  For example, you have two blocks on the floor and your red builder brush is a chair, select the two blocks, then press this tool and the blocks will be transformed into chairs.

replaceselectednonbrushReplace Selected Non Brush Actors

This tool will replace every actor you have selected that is not a brush with whatever you have selected in the classes browser.   For example, select a bunch of trees in your level, and select the table in the classes browser.  Press this tool and all of those trees will become tables.

cubeBuild A Cube

This tool is used to build one of UnrealED's primitives.  Primitives are simple objects you can make to construct things from.   The Cube tool creates a Cube for your red builder brush.  Press the tool and it will build your red brush with the properties selected.  If you want to edit the properties, right click the tool and select Cube Properties.  A window will pop up with all of the attributes of a cube.  A cube has.. you know what a cube is :)   Select its width, height, and length (breadth).  Cubes are good for just about anything.  You can create your basic rooms and hallways with them, or with specific sizes create different things, like posts, ladders, etc.  Or you can vertex edit (move the points) and create different shapes with them, although you won't be able to add sides.  Cubes can be hollow or solid.  If you make a soild cube, the wall thickness doesnt matter.  However, if the cube is hollow, it will be solid on the outside with walls as thick as specified.

Properties

undoUndo

I'm sure everybody knows what an Undo button does.  If you make a mistake, press Undo and it will be undone.  UnrealED has a pretty generous Undo memory, but when you rebuild your level you will not be able to undo your changes via the Undo button.  You aren't totally screwed though, there are ways to fix your level when bad things happen.  Always remember to save often as well.

redoRedo

The redo button will redo stuff that you just undid, incase you change your mind or just hit undo too many times.

sphereBuild A Sphere

This tool is used to build one of UnrealED's primitives.  Primitives are simple objects you can make to construct things from.   The Sphere tool creates a Sphere for your red builder brush.  Press the tool and it will build your red brush with the properties selected.  If you want to edit the properties, right click the tool.  A window will pop up with all of the attributes of a Sphere.  Spheres are round (duh).  The size of a sphere is determined by the radius, which is how far it extends from the center.  If you are building a solid sphere, the inner radius doesn't matter.  If you are building a hollow sphere, the outside part of it will be solid, and the part of the sphere designated by the inner radius will be hollow.  Radial stripes and vertical stripes have to do with the level of detail of your sphere.  4x8 isn't very high quality, but you won't want to go much higher.  Stripes are how many sections the sphere is cut into for how detailed it is.  If you do 32 x 32 stripes, that would turn out to be over 1,000 polygons making your sphere (1024 to be exact) - This would KILL your framerate, and UnrealED will not hesitate to crash when you enter ridiculous values like this.   16x16 would probably be the absolute max that I  would try, but thats for big things.  Keep it as low as you can.

Properties

pantexturePan Texture(s)

Use this tool to move your textures.   Select the surfaces that you want to pan in your 3D view.  After you select them, press this tool.  With this tool selected, press and hold the control button.   Drag the left and right mouse buttons (one or the other, one does up/down, the other does left/right) to pan the textures.  This tool is good, however I prefer to use the Pan texture tool that you can bring up by right clicking the surface and going into surface properties.  It is much more precise than the mistakes you will probably make doing it by mouse.

rotatetextureRotate Texture(s)

Use this tool to rotate the direction of your textures.  This works like the Pan Textures tool above.  Select the surfaces that you want to pan in your 3D view.  After you select them, press this tool.   With this tool selected, press and hold the control button.  Drag the left and right mouse buttons to rotate your selected textures.  Like the Pan Textures tool, you can also alternately rotate your texture via the Surface Properties.  However, you can only rotate the major degrees (180 flip, 90, 45) - You must use this rotate textures tool if you want to be more precise than that.

cylinderBuild A Cylinder

This tool is used to build one of UnrealED's primitives.  Primitives are simple objects you can make to construct things from.   The Cylinder tool creates a Cylinder for your red builder brush.  Press the tool and it will build your red brush with the properties selected.  If you want to edit the properties, right click the tool.  A window will pop up with all of the attributes of a Cylinder.  A Cylinder is circular around it, with flat tops and bottoms.  Cylinders can be used to make things like round poles, pipes, hollow tubes, etc.  You get to specify the height and the radius.  For a solid Cylinder, the inner radius doesn't matter, but for hollow Cylinders, the outside is solid, and the part of the cylinder inside the inner radius is hollow.  A hollow Cylinder is a tube.

Properties

drawregionselectedactorsDrawing Region: Selected Actors

When your levels get very detailed, your editing views can become extremely cluttered.  This tool can be useful for simplifying things.  Select whatever you want to be in view (Select All Actors Inside Brush would work good), then press this tool.  Everything that you DON'T have selected will dissapear from view, so it won't bother you while you edit in the area that you want to.    To get everything back, press the Drawing Region: OFF tool (see below).

drawregionoffDrawing Region: OFF

This tool brings back any actors that were eliminated from the view by the Drawing Region tool above, as well asthe Hide Selected Actors tool below.  Press it and everything comes back.

coneBuild A Cone

This tool is used to build one of UnrealED's primitives.  Primitives are simple objects you can make to construct things from.   The Cone tool creates a Cone for your red builder brush.  Press the tool and it will build your red brush with the properties selected.  If you want to edit the properties, right click the tool.  A window will pop up with all of the attributes of a Cone.  A Cone has a round base that goes up to a pointed top.  A four-sided cone is like a pyramid, lots of uses can be made for a cone.  A three-sided cone could be used as a wedge (good for slopes and other things) with rotation and some vertex manip...  For a solid cone, the cap height and inner radius don't matter.  For a hollow cone, the outside part of the cone will be solid, with a hollow center the side of the inner radius.  If you make a capped cone, it will have a flat top at the designated height.

Properties

hideselectedactorsHide Selected Actors

This tool is like the opposite of the "Drawing Region: Selected Actors" tool.  That tool gets rid of everything that ISN'T selected.  This tool hides everything you select when pressed.  So say there is this one super detailed room that is annoying you in your 2D view as you try to do something somewhere else.  Just select everything in the room, press this tool, and presto.  It dissapears from view.  Use "Drawing Region: OFF" to make the hidden actors reappear.

drawregionZDrawing Region: Z

??? ... I still haven't found any visible thing that this button does.  Someone tell me if you do :P

stairBuild A Stair

This tool is one of UnrealED's built in stair builders.  Stairs are common things in levels, so including tools to construct stairs (rather than you the user have to construct the stairs out of dozens of simple shapes) is a good idea.  Right click this tool and choose Stair properties.  The options window is pretty self explanitory.  The "Add to first step" option will make the first step that amount taller... Good for making something with a large base I guess.

Properties

blankBlank Space

This is a space left void by the developers.   It does nothing.

snaptogridToggle Vertex Snapping

When you are moving your brush around, the vertices will snap to the grid when this is enabled (The tool's button is darkened).   This function annoys me sometimes because it will try to snap the brush to somewhere that it wont allow me to put it where I want to.  So if you ever have a brush that is jumping around the place you want to put it, try disabling this tool.

spiralstairBuild A Spiral Stair

This tool is one of UnrealED's built in stair builders.  Stairs are common things in levels, so including tools to construct stairs (rather than you the user have to construct the stairs out of dozens of simple shapes) is a good idea.  The spiral stair option is very complex.  You will just have to play around with the options to get it to do what you want to do.  The steps per circle and the total number of steps will determine how long the steps will be..   Like having 8 steps per circle would make each a 45 degree cut.  And if you make 4 total steps, your staircase would be half a circle.  The "Fill" options will add interior and exterior walls.  Your circle staircase would probably need walls if it were indoors to be realistic, and this options would add those in for you.  The "Surface" and "Ceiling" option is between steps or slope.. If you made the surface sloped instead of steps, you could create a cool "slide" like effect.  The ceiling would probably just look better sloped.. So many options, just play around and make your own cool staircases...

Properties

helpHelp

UnrealED came with no help files.  This button has no function, and don't try to locate the help files.  They aren't there.   A commercial version of UnrealED was supposed to come out, but never did.

speedToggle Speed

This tool toggles the speed of which everything moves in your editing views.  The first speed is very slow, the second is what you should use for normal editing, and the third speed is very fast, good for moving across a huge level, or just having fun with the 3D view...  You don't have to use this button however, just use the 1, 2, and 3 buttons to set the speed.

curvedstairBuild A Curved Stair

This tool is one of UnrealED's built in stair builders.  Stairs are common things in levels, so including tools to construct stairs (rather than you the user have to construct the stairs out of dozens of simple shapes) is a good idea.  Curved stairs are a pretty cool effect.  You can make a staircase that curves a certain amount of degrees along the radius that your specify.  Not as complex as the spiral stair tool, but you can do some cool things.  The options screen is pretty self explanatory, so play around with it to create the type of staircase that you want.

Properties

gridToggle Grid Snapping

When this tool is enabled (the button is dark), objects will snap to the grid (whichever level you have selected) when you move them.   You almost always want this on.  If you want to move things to more precise locations, take your grid units down.  If brushes aren't snapped to the grid, bad things can happen.  Leave this on :)

rotationgridToggle Rotation Grid Snapping

When this tool is enabled (the button is dark), when you rotate brushes they will only rotate to where they snap to the grid (like in intervals of like 45 degrees) - When it is disabled you can freely rotate any amount.   However, you want precision in UnrealED so it isn't too great an idea to leave this off...

sheetBuild A Sheet

The Sheet tool builds a sheet.  Right click the tool and choose Sheet Properties to customize the sheet.  Sheets are flat rectanglar polygons.  You can only select its width and height, and which way it points when you build it (either its flat as a floor, its upright facing to the side or upright facing the front)..  Once you build it you can rotate it of course.   Sheets are used to make things like water, windows, and decorations.    Most things done with sheets will be added as special brushes with the Add Special Brush tool...

Properties

 

 

 

 

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