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One of the most fundamental aspects of level design is proper scale and dimensions. A door way that is few units too large or too small will ruin the illusion of your environment.

A building set to improper scale will destroy the immersion of the player in your environment.

Hammer Source has few key aspects of keeping your world on scale and proper proportions.

The Tutorial Covers:
How to keep your map to proper scale and dimensions
Hammer Source character scale, wall height, door dimensions, stairs
Developer textures
Grid values

KEY PLAYER AND WORLD DIMENSION

Player Scale

Architecture Scale

Width/Depth: 32 units

1 foot = 16 units

Height: 72 units

Door Width: 48 units

Height Crouching: 36 units

Door Height: 108 units

Eye Level Crouching: 32

Hallway Height: 128 units

Eye Level Standing: 64

Hallway Width: 64 units

Slope to Climb: 45 degrees

Stairs Height: 8 units

Stairs Depth: 16 units

Max Step Height: 18 units

PLAYER REFERENCE SCALE

First thing you want to do is insert a player reference scale. This is an entity that inserts a player model. Depending on the game you are creating your environment for the entity name varies.

Character Height: 72 units

example:
info_player_start (all Source based games)
info_player_terrorist or info_player_counterterrorist (Counter-Strike: Source)
info_survivor_position (L4D1/2)
info_player_teamspawn (TF2)

ARCHITECTURE REFERENCE SCALE

All the following values are avarage dimensions. Use them as a base reference, but often they may have to be tweaked depending on the environment.

Door Width: 48 units
Door Height: 108 units

Wall Height: 128 units
Hallway Width: 64 units

Stairs Height: 8 units
Stairs Depth: 16 units
Max Step Height: 18 units

GRID VALUES

Pay very close attention to your grid and geometry values.

DEVELOPER TEXTURES

Using developer textures is additional way to help you with scale, dimensions and architecture proportion.

Open up the texture browser by clicking on the Face Edit Sheet and filter by dev

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Dimensions

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