Originally posted by Dr. Boomer:

You need software called crowbar and you need two 3D models, one is actuall model and the other one is a collision, and also you need source tools for blender. You have to export model and collision model as SMD and then make "qc" file, qc file ia basically a script for model, after all of that, compile your model in crowbar and done. Also about texture of model, the name of the texture in the game files should be same as a name of that same texture in blender, hope that helps.

The blender files are .blend.
I can use Blender Source Tools to export them to .dmx.
I learned online how to build a .qc file (and what to put in it) and how to build a .bat to run the qc file.
The issue is that if I use the full map, with all of the materials, it gives me errors. If I don't delete all of the materials (which I can't even see in blender...) then it spits out "can't compile with more than 32 materials."

I deleted them all, and now it said "Can't compile: too many indices" (which I don't know what it means) but if I chunk the map up into a dozen little bits, I can "stitch" them out and use it as a reference on hammer brushes.

It would be absolutely awesome if I could use the whole map with the materials, and the map as a collision file, all in one go, but I can't tell how to do it.

I've been in crowbar, but I can't tell where to put the mdx file. There is a qc input file/folder/subfolder areas in the compile tab, but where do I put my map.dmx?

I've already ripped a map from a different game using a third party software so that it's a 3D model saved as a .blend file. I'm not experienced with modeling or mapping, but I know enough that I can't just drop this giant 3D file into Hammer and expect it to work out the gate...

What I want to do is import this as a 3D model into Hammer so that I have a template and floor plan of the original map, and that way I can build the actual map using brushes and delete the 3D model later. That way it'd just be an art pass at that point.

Does this sound feasible?

How would you guys go about it with what I got already, and what you know?