after messing around in hammer this past week and learning how to do different things, I have begun creating a map and and for some reason a couple seemingly simple things are not working for me.

The first thing is a panel, I am using the 128x128_ramp_90degree_01c.vmf instance as basically a door covering a portable area. When a floor button is pressed I want the panel to close and when you step off I want the panel to open. I also want it to be open at the start of the map.

I have the button working but if you step off or back on before the animation is completed it starts glitching out. As in the arms dissapear and things like that. I think I need to somehow make the floor button act like a push button that you can set a timer on. I could then not allow the button to switch states until the animation is over. How would this be done?

The other problem I am having is with the trigger catapult instance. I have a slanted wall where a portal is placed and the trigger is right above it. Now I obviously don't want the player to be able to just fall on this spot and have them go flying off. I have set up the threshold options but I guess I dont understand them. If I put the player speed at 750 and only want the trigger to be triggered when the player is going higher than, say 500 what would I make the threshold settings. I have recently done something like .1 and .5 and the console outputs a message saying player to slow. player at 850 and expected to be between 1155 and 1653. What is going on here?

Thanks for any help

The answer to your first problem:

The instances by Valve are not perfect. You should therefore do the following steps:
1. Select the panel, then go to instancing>collapse>selection. (Now you can select every object of the instance).
2. You should find two logic_relays inside the instance. One should be named ramp_open, the other ramp_close or something similar. Now go to their outputs and make each relay cancel Pending the other one when triggered:
This means: ramp_open-onTrigger-rampClose-cancelPending
ramp_close-onTrigger-rampOPen-cancelPending
3. No go the the outputs of your button. You should edit its outputs to trigger ramp_open/ramp_close when pressed/unpressed.
4. Repeat for the number of panels you have.

Have you set a landing target for the trigger_catapult? If so, then the player speed you set must be within the range indicated in the error message. (1155 < player speed < 1653.) Otherwise, the player simply has not enough kinetic energy to reach the target.

The lower numbers within this range will result in a lower flight path than the higher numbers. You may have to do some tests to find the optimal value, to ensure that the player clears any obstacles, doesn't crash into the ceiling etc.

Once you got that working, find the correct threshold value where the catapult doesn't activate when you don't want it to. It should be lower than the player's incoming speed.
To prevent it from firing when the player falls down onto it, check out the "entry angle tolerance" setting.

Thanks to both of you. I now have these things working the way I want them too in my map. I hope to release a WIP version pretty soon. The map is really meant to just be a way of learning as many things about hammer as I can so will probably be pretty easy and some what ugly but I hope it serves its purpose.