Brush behavior that drives me bonkers

[fudgonaut]

Has anyone experienced the issue where the editor doesn't let you move a brush to a location you want?

I find this happens when I have a lot of geometry built, and I'm trying to place small brush or place a brush when my grid is set less than 16UU, or both

I try to move the brushes' pivot to where I want, and the editor will snap to a nearby grid location.

It makes fine detail work really difficult sometimes and it drives me bonkers.

Does anyone know why the editor does this - and more importantly - is there a way to make the editor stop interfering with brush placement?

[Barbie]

I experienced that often and that's very annoying. Usually I cut the brush to t3d, remove the "PrePivot" and try again.

[EvilGrins]

Yes, but there's sort of a workaround which I only worked out via frustration.

Whenever UnrealEd won't let me move something, I switch to a different window with Alt-Tab; outside the editor, sometimes to whatever else I have open on the desktop.

Soon as I Alt-Tab again to come back, what wouldn't move before now does.

Don't ask me to explain it, but it works.

[McFrag]

Another dirty workaround is to simply build the brush somewhere else and then to move it to its wanted position afterwards.

[sektor2111]

I'm in for solution posted by EG... but (at least for me) that's not the only one. Sometimes I'm saving work, and returning back to Editor in a clean state.
Next... depending on desired spot I might add an actor (Knife, Lamp, etc) in place. I record "Location" then deleting temporary actor. All I'll do next is to "edit" X Y Z data for brush - Location more specific (on the grid). I did this X times when I was adjusting paths... Definitely after this task, after moving actors NON-Brushes I fix their locations with MapGarbage because zone data is not updated when actor is moved other way that using "SetLocation" by Engine itself. Actors usually are updated according to their zone if map is being re-build - but in some maps this is not advisable at all and so updating locations will need external support...
I witnessed a lot of funky moves in Editor... but I investigated and deal with them having in mind a single logic: "Editor is unstable and might do corruptions for itself" - this is the main reason for "refreshing" it constantly - less data created = less errors.

Random stage:
I did "Brush119" but I don't like it, so I'm deleting it and "recreating" it. "Recreating" doesn't actually exists because "recreated" Brush is named from now on "Brush120" - What's up then with "Brush119" ? - Memorized something NULL ? - Is that even NULL 100% or it's just a dummy nulling (we want "UNDO" available after all) ? Similar to InventorySpot1200 and map doesn't have so many but... rebuilding, deleting, adding, deleting, without a refresh might go into a state where editing goes impossible.
Does "Obj Garbage" solves issue ? Clearly not, but after using "obj garbage" I recommend saving map immediately and closing editing session because... funky stuff might come up.

Misc Off-Topic: Not only UT's Editor is getting used to have lousy reactions, I see in other games a need to roll-back version, editing map, then re-updating version to the recent one.

[fudgonaut]

Usually I cut the brush to t3d, remove the "PrePivot" and try again.

Interesting - how do you do this? Do you open the .t3d with a hex editor or something?

I switch to a different window with Alt-Tab; outside the editor, sometimes to whatever else I have open on the desktop.

Soon as I Alt-Tab again to come back, what wouldn't move before now does.

Thanks, I will give this a try

Another dirty workaround is to simply build the brush somewhere else and then to move it to its wanted position afterwards.

This is usually my first step, but so often the editor will continue the behavior, even with a new brush

Here is a ridiculous technique that I found works:

• Determine how many UU the brush's pivot is from the target destination, say it's 12UU too high along the Z axis
• Create a cube shape with the cube brush builder
• Place the red cube far away from the map's concentration of geometry, say 2048UU
• With the red brush selected, ctrl-click on the problem brush so that both are selected
• Move the red brush down 12UU on the Z axis
• Since the trouble brush is also selected, it gets dragged down 12UU too
• And now it's in the correct postition

You just have to deselect that brush and never move it or the editor will pop it out of place again

[Barbie]

Usually I cut the brush to t3d, remove the "PrePivot" and try again.

Interesting - how do you do this? Do you open the .t3d with a hex editor or something?

Select Actor(s) in UnrealEd, choose Edit>Cut, open a text editor and paste it there. After the necessary changes paste it back in UnrealEd.

[Red_Fist]

Isn't this thing just turn off , snapping ?

I have never used snapping and almost always use grid 1.

If you change the grid from 1 to 16 or I assume any change, whatever size, when you move the brush again, after switching back to grid one, the brush will jump at the last setting.
Then I move it, and hit undo, and go back to my grid 1 editing and move the brush freely and smooth as grid one again.

Also I really have not figured out why I would want to move a pivot. Seems either rotate, or grab a corner , I never did know a use for that.

[Barbie]

Also I really have not figured out why I would want to move a pivot.

If you have for example a (half) swinging door, the rotation point has to be where the hinge is:

[fudgonaut]

Isn't this thing just turn off , snapping ?

The behavior occurs whether grid snapping is on or not. It's like the editor decides that a particular coordinate is off limits/invalid, and refuses to let you place anything there.

The behavior increases as more geometry is added. So once you build your map and you're ready to add finer details, it's those finer details that the editor really likes to f*ck with.

[SzGergo]

it's been quite a time since i last fired up ued,
but as far as i remember, you can rightlcick on brueshes too, and simply set the xyz position in the property menu...