Tool textures

From Valve Developer Community

The tools textures can easily be found in Hammer by running "tools" as a filter word in the texture browser. These textures have extra attributes that most textures do not.

 Note: WiseClipped - tutorial on using many of the Source Tool textures shown below

Image	Name	Special attributes
	Areaportal	Use with areaportals (func_areaportals and func_areaportalwindows).
	Black	Black texture, unaffected by light.
	Block LOS	Blocks the line-of-sight of NPCs and bots. Also casts shadows, so may need to be used in conjunction with func_brushes to avoid cosmetic glitches.
	Block bullets	Solid to bullets but not light or other objects. This does not automatically stop bullets, it's a regular wall only solid to bullets.
	Block light	Invisible; casts shadow like standard materials, Does not only block light, also blocks NPC LOS and cuts world brushes. It is better to use a Simple brush covered in nodraw, then set to a Func_brush and told to cast lightmap shadows.
	Clip	Solid to all objects. Is not rendered.
	Player clip control	Purpose is unknown. (See "player clip" below for the tool texture that restricts player movement.)
	Dotted	The toolsdotted texture has very few special effects. As with a normal texture, a brush textured with toolsdotted cuts up world geometry and VIS leaves. However, the toolsdotted texture is rendered over all brush geometry as long as the player is standing in a leaf that can see the toolsdotted face. Furthermore, a brush with toolsdotted on any face will not block visibility nor cull any face that it touches, meaning that any area enclosed in a toolsdotted-textured brush will not be removed from the map in any way.
	Fog	Does not seem to work. (You can use this for func_smokevolume instead of the trigger texture but NOT for func_dustcloud.)
	Hint	Divides visleafs.
	Invisible	Solid to all objects, invisible and does not cast shadows
	Ladder	Invisible; Use in Counter-Strike: Source with func_ladder.
	No Draw	Solid; Invisible; seals leaks; blocks visibility if used on all surfaces of the same brush. Casts shadows.
	No Draw Roof	Counter-Strike: Source specific. Identical to No Draw, the only difference being a separate texture name to differentiate them.
	NPC clip	Solid to NPCs but not players or other objects, is not rendered.
	Occluder	Use with func_occluders
	Origin	Use to set the rotation origin of rotating entities; deprecated for use in Source maps (Basic idea of an origin brush was used in Goldsource mapping)
	Player clip	Solid to players but not NPCs or other objects, is not rendered.
	Skip	Invisible; has no effect on anything. Useful in combination with HINT. SKIP faces are removed during compile, so a brush textured with skip won't prevent leaks. Also useful as a tool in Hammer for grouping, moving, place-holding objects.
	Skybox	Use to make 2D skyboxes. Casts light if there is a light_environment entity in the map. Cannot be used in the same PVS as toolsskybox2d.
	2D Skybox	Available only in The Orange Box engine and later. Use to make 2D skyboxes without displaying the 3D Skybox. Casts light if there is a light_environment entity in the map. Cannot be used in the same PVS as toolsskybox.
	SkyFog	To do: toolsskyfog.vmt does not contain any properties.
	Trigger	Use on Trigger entities and Buyzones in Counter-Strike: Source. Also don't forget to move the selected trigger brush(es) ToEntity so you can change the properties.