Auto Cad? Design Help?

[The_Underground]

First off, thanks for adding me to the forum. Not sure why I was getting an error.

Second, and I'm sure this is a stupid question but I know nothing at all about making a mod. Can maps be created in Auto Cad and imported into SDK? (if that's even right)

Why do I ask? Because I know someone with his own auto cad business (designing blueprints, city plans, etc) and I am interested in having a map created for a project called The Underground. We are a small television show (about 400,000 households) and are looking for someone to create a map for us so we can set up and advertise our own half life 2 server. We have talked to Valve for permission to advertise on our television program and think this would be a cool opportunity to share our love of half life to our viewers. (with the "talk" features built into half life we see it as a chat room with guns so to speak) We want to give our viewers an environment to roam, chat & frag all while being in our "Underground" setting. I have no idea what an undertaking this will actually be and ask for help/advice in any way. we would love to track stats, have a player log in list with contact information, maybe even show video clips or screen caps on our television program and on our web site or host competitions of some sort in the future.

If anyone can help in any way it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Chris
The Underground
http://www.theundergroundtv.com

 

[Mr Neutron]

The SDK has its own mapping tool, Hammer, but with the right conversion tools, you can do your geometry in a CAD program or some other 3D modeling program and then port that into Hammer. The thing you have to know about mapping is that the geometry is split into two kinds: basic world geometry (the basic walls and some larger features) and model geometry (any complex objects and anything interactive). The latter must be done in a program like Maya or XSi, the former CAN be done in an external program but with some complication if you're not careful about 2 issues: 1) keeping the geometry convex, and 2) making sure the normals face the way you want. Most mappers just stick to the standard pre-made models and only make their own world geometry, using just Hammer.

 

[R to the Sizzle]

I use 3D Studio Max 7 and it allows you to import drawing files from CAD (I use AutoCAD).