Well I am just getting into mapping. I tried moving some things around, but I can't place them right. For example: when dragging a door in Hammer, the door will "jump" on the grid. It will not drag smoothly where I want it too. I guess you could say the action is not as refined as it should be. Is there a way to correct this? Thank you

You could turn the grid off
but I highly recommend not to do that
The grid/snap to grid allows is something that takes a while to get used to, but it is very very usefull:
If you work on a grid it is very easy to spot any errors: if a brush is missing it is at least the size of your grid! (I recommend using a 8, 16 or 32 grid) you can change the grid size by pressing [ or ].

It will also make sure that all objecs are nicely how they are supposed to be: For example, you won't have buttons floating a couple of units above the floor etc.

So yea, you could turn it off, but it is a lot better to get used to it, it will save you a lot of time! And will make your maps better in the end.

Have you minimized the grid? Objects snap to the closest intersection of the two lines. If you want a more precise positioning you'll need to minimize it. You do this by pressing the 3rd button from the left in the row beneath File, Edit, Map etc. It's the button with the blue minus in the corner of the icon. You can make it bigger again using the plus-icon.

Thank you so much! This really helped

uEnviousBro? wrote:
Thank you so much! This really helped

It's hard to make a map otherwise

Remember to not go below Grid 8 unless you're doing very miniscule detailing. I can't stress enough how much easier your life will be if every one of your brushes is a multiple of 8 in unit size. Everything will kind of just "fit" together. You might not notice it at first, but when you have to start moving stuff around for bug fixes and such, if you built everything on grid 2 or 4 you will have such a headache trying to line everything up again.

The biggest problem with small brushes:
When I used them the first time I thought I had much more control, but you very easily make tiny mistakes, resulting in leaks, overlapping textures, un-optimized stuff.

Bigger brushes will give you: fitting stuff, less leaks and in case of leaks they're a hell of a lot easier to spot, no overlapping textures, or easy to spot, and more optimized maps, so better performance.

I always use 16 or 32, 8 for indicator lights, and only smaller grid sizes for making realistic, thin glass. I currently on the wrong computer to show you the differences in the vmfs, but feel free to decompile my first and most recent map, check out the differences in the vmf's and see how much more organised the latest one is.

The first map is on a tiny grid, and it's a mess to look at in hammer, my most recent map is a lot better to see what happens!