Starting with Hammer Editor

Wasn't sure how to word the title, but anyway, I'm looking to build a house of sorts. I'm starting out using the Valve Hammer Editor. I got the building created already, and have converted it to a .obj format and then imported into Blender. I've no idea how to use Blender, but the main thing I wanna do, is re-texture the building, and then re-export it to a format compatible with SL so I can then upload it into the game.

However, after doing some reading, I realized there are some requirements that the file needs to be in line with before it'll be read right.

I only downloaded this game yesterday, so I'm not too into the specifics of everything, so if someone could explain a couple of the basic things that my model needs to comply with to work right, I'd appreciate it.

You don't build buildings in external tools and then upload them, you actually build within SL itself. There are building classes in-world (when I first started there was even basic building lessons as part of the orientation, but that may have changed by now,) or lookup information in this forum on how to build; a key word to look out for is "prims."

Incidentally, building with prims in SL is much more like using brushes in Hammer than it is like modeling with polygons or NURBS in a general purpose 3D tool like Maya or 3ds max, so it won't be hard for you to get used to.

Ah I see. I figured I could just build it and then upload. The one I made actually has about 600 vertices and around 40 faces I think, last I analyzed it.

Anyway, I was hoping I could use the Hammer Editor, because I've gotten comfortable enough using that and texturing with it, that I can build many different things, from buildings, to landscapes, weapons, and vehicles.

I did some basic building in-game, and actually made a mock-up Stargate from the Scifi show Stargate Sg1. It looked pretty good for only having played for less than 5 hours at the time. I think I may look into some of those classes you were talking about to learn how to build better though, because right now, I've only got the basic stuff down, like Linking, Stretching, and Rotating.