okay so I figured out a bit more of the issue it isn't that quakespasm isn't reading my maps bsp or that the bsp is going into the wrong folder, the issue is that my map is having an issue compiling a bsp.

so I was looking at the n_q2spcompilinggui and it has an option for you to pause after compiling and i did that and noticed that it wasn't even compiling the bsp. This is the error that pops up on the command prompt.
------------qbsp-------------
C:\Program is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file
the system cannot find the file specifified (it repeats this 3 times and then says press any key to continue)

so the issue is with the bsp tool do you guys know how to fix it? 

oh and right above where it says
-----------------qbsp---------------
in the command line it says
"the system cannot find the file specified
converting map..." 

oh and right above where it says
-----------------qbsp---------------
in the command line it says
"the system cannot find the file specified
converting map..." 

C:\Program is not recognized as an internal or external command
indicates it is a paths-with-spaces issue.

Easiest fix might be to copy your quake install to c:\quake. 

how do i go about copying my quake install to c:\quake? do you mean taking the file out of the steam folder and moving it to... where exactly? 

@Winky

Because of the error you are getting when trying to run qbsp using necros' GUI I am willing to guess the following:

A) You have not installed the compiling tools on your computer. The GUI is only an interface, you still need to get qbsp, VIS and light tools from the internet.

B) You have installed the tools but did not enter the path into the GUI. Go to Settings, Folder Setup, and select the compiling tools qbsp, VIS and light from the folders they are located in on your computer.

This should solve the problem. You do not need to move Quake out of STEAM just to compile a map. If this does not fix your problem, there may be other issues going on. 

okay so looks like i am a god damn idiot i did have the tools but forgot to specify (which i could have sworn to god i did!) but now i have a new fucking error!

the command line comes up and says

Copying files...
the system cannot find the file specified
converting map...
-------qbsp-------
-----qbsp / tryutils v0.5 ----
input file: testmap
outputfile map.bsp

---loadMapFile---
XXXXXXXXXXXX ERROR XXXXXX
failed to open test.map: no such file or directory
the system cannot find the file specified (repeats this three times)

so I got the bsp part working but now it won't load the map file but at least we got a step closer (i think) jesus man is it this hard to edit quake levels or am i just unlucky lol? 

okay so looks like i am a god damn idiot i did have the tools but forgot to specify (which i could have sworn to god i did!) but now i have a new fucking error!

the command line comes up and says

Copying files...
the system cannot find the file specified
converting map...
-------qbsp-------
-----qbsp / tryutils v0.5 ----
input file: testmap
outputfile map.bsp

---loadMapFile---
XXXXXXXXXXXX ERROR XXXXXX
failed to open test.map: no such file or directory
the system cannot find the file specified (repeats this three times)

so I got the bsp part working but now it won't load the map file but at least we got a step closer (i think) jesus man is it this hard to edit quake levels or am i just unlucky lol? 

okay so looks like i am a god damn idiot i did have the tools but forgot to specify (which i could have sworn to god i did!) but now i have a new fucking error!

the command line comes up and says

Copying files...
the system cannot find the file specified
converting map...
-------qbsp-------
-----qbsp / tryutils v0.5 ----
input file: testmap
outputfile map.bsp

---loadMapFile---
XXXXXXXXXXXX ERROR XXXXXX
failed to open test.map: no such file or directory
the system cannot find the file specified (repeats this three times)

so I got the bsp part working but now it won't load the map file but at least we got a step closer (i think) jesus man is it this hard to edit quake levels or am i just unlucky lol? 

Please only press the submit button once. It will only create spam when you do this.

I strongly advise against launching the map directly from the compiler. First you must determine where your output folder is. Again look at your compiler settings and see where the output folder is. This is where your finished .map goes to. This is NOT where your quake game folder is, and thus you cannot play this map. Now copy your finished map, and paste it into you C:/whatever/whatever/quake/iD1/maps folder. Now you can play your map. Launch quake and type map yourmapname.

This should fix it. 

Looking again at your error it seems you have also not specified 2 things:

A) The .map cannot be found. This means you have not specified the correct working folder in the GUI where your .maps are located. Check Settings Folder Setup again to do this.

B)The .map doesn't exist. Check your spelling again, are you sure this file is even on your computer. 

Yeah i keep doing it on accident it's because my computer is slow and I kept accidently spam clicking the submit button sorry about that I looked all over for a delete button i didn't mean to spam up the feed.

okay i did what you said and when i try to launch from quake spasm it says "can't load test map.bsp" (my map name is test map) so i'm gonna tell you guys all the files where i have this gui pointing to.

i have source maps pointed to quake/id1/maps/test map
i have quake engine pointed to quake/quakespasm

working folder is pointed to steamapps/common/quake

output folder is poitned to quake/id1/maps

god i just wish this would fucking work 

And dont worry, we've all been there. 

Is there a way i can just compile straight from trench broom???? 

Manual Compile:
Put qbsp.exe, light.exe, and vis.exe in a folder with your .map file.
Drag and drop .map onto qbsp.exe
Drag and drop the .bsp onto vis.exe
Drag and drop the .bsp onto light.exe
Manually cut and paste the .bsp into your ..../id1/maps or alternatively .../<mod>/maps such as AD/maps. 

You cannot have spaces in a map name. You must use underscores in this case.

-First: Have you compiled the map without errors? Do you have testmap.bsp ?? You cannot play anything ending in .map Files that end in .map are not maps and cannot be played in Quake.

-You should create a separate special folder for your .map files. NOT in your id1/maps folder. This will create confusion. Only finished .bsp files go in your id1/maps folder.

-Confirm that you can compile testmap.map into -----> testmap.bsp This .bsp goes into your id1/maps. Only now can you play the map. 

OKAY! so i listened to qmaster and just manually did it and i made the level into a .bsp file now i dropped it into id1/maps now i just need to know what i type into quake spasm to launch the level? 

no that is the whole problem whenever i tried to use the stupid gui thing and press compile it wouldn't compile my level into a .bsp it kept giving me error messages what is what i've been posting but i just manually dragged the qbsp and the vis.exe and light.exe and made "lavalevel.bsp" 

If your map is called "testmap.bsp" you would type in the quakespasm console: "map testmap" 

FINALLY I LOVE YOU ALL YOU ALL ARE THE BEST BOYS!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! 

I am making a Hexen 2 (Hexen II (for ctrl-F)) map, and I can't for the life of my figure out the "hierarch" spawnflag.

I have a breakable_brush, and another breakable_brush next to it. In Hexen 2, sometimes by breaking a 'foundation' breakable brush, it will automatically destroy some other breakable brushes... i.e. if you have a breakable stone bird bath, with the foundation pillar and the basin being separate brushes, if you were to break the foundation pillar first, the basin should automatically break too, rather than remain floating in the air. This is what I'm trying to do.

I've made both of my brushes into breakable_brush's (separately), and switched on the HIERARCH flag. I've given them a "thingtype" field, and, as directed by the Help file, I've given them both a "frags" field, where the foundation brush has a value of 1 and the basin has a value of 2. According to the Help file, breakable brushes with the lower value will destroy any brushes that have a higher value.

I tried it, and they each can be broken separately, but breaking the foundation leaves the basin floating in mid-air.

I assumed, then, that's because I need to tell the game "these breakable brushes are of the same grouping". I noticed in the Help comment for the CHECKNAME flag, it says:

"link brushes, but also check the name you place in the netname field. Brushes must then not only touch, but also have the same netname to link"

So I enabled CHECKNAME (as well as HIERARCH), and then added a "netname" field, and gave the foundation and the basin the same netname value. ("tmp")

Still doesn't work. They just break separately, and if I break the foundation, the basin remains floating in the air.

How do I do this correctly? 

Don't set .flags or it will override .frags.
I think you might need to set .cnt to 1. 

Hmm I'm not familiar with the dot.fieldname syntax (.flags?)

I'm using the "BSP" Editor, if that matters, but as far as I know, checking any of the flags (like HIERARCH, or ORDERED), uses/creates the field called "spawnflags" to which then it adds to that value in powers of 2 representing the different flags.

In my case, "spawnflags" field is "2" when I only tried HIERARCH by itself, and 2+8 "10" when I tried HIERARCH and CHECKNAME.

"frags" is a separate field -- If setting "spawnflags" overrides anything set in "frags", then how would one go about doing a "HIERARCH" flag breakable set? I thought the whole idea was to flag a set of rubble as HIERARCH, and then, using different values under "frags" determines which pieces break other pieces. (lower numbers destroy higher numbers?)

Anyway, I tried adding "cnt" with a value of 1 for both the foundation and the basin, but it didn't seem to have any effect. I tried that, with, and without, spawnflags existing.

For clarity, here are my properties of each breakable_brush--

Foundation brush:
cnt: 1
classname: breakable_brush
frags: 1
spawnflags: 2 (tried with, and without)

Basin brush:
cnt: 1
classname: breakable_brush
frags: 2
spawnflags: 2 (tried with, and without) 

I should note, btw, that in my actual scene, I have a grouping of 3+ brushes that can be broken, not just two. If I were to only have two brushes, I could use the: killtarget & targetname combination.

I tried that already, though, and it doesn't seem to chain together breaks. That is, if I tell piece1 to kill piece2, and I tell piece2 to kill piece3 ... Killing piece1 will only kill piece2, but leave piece3 floating there. So it doesn't seem to chain them, which is, I assume, the reason for the HIERARCH and ORDERED functions?

Any ideas? 

I had a quick look at the "hcode" (QuakeC), btw, link here: hexen2source-gamecode-1.5.8.tgz

Not sure if you have the full docs, here is the excerpt from breakabl.hc:

It sounds like you were using HIERARCH mode correctly; were the two breakables touching? It looks like that is required for them to be linked.

float BREAK_KILLALL = 1;
float BREAK_HIERARCH = 2;
float BREAK_NOLINK = 4;
float BREAK_CHECKNAME = 8;
float BREAK_ORDERED = 16;
float BREAK_TRANSLUCENT = 32;
float BREAK_INVINCIBLE = 64;
float BREAK_INVISIBLE = 128;

/*QUAKED breakable_brush (0 0 1) ? KILLALL HIERARCH NOLINK CHECKNAME ORDERED TRANSLUCENT INVINCIBLE INVISIBLE
Breakable window or wall

You can manually control the heirarchy of breaking by targeting all the brushes you want this brush to break.
If you target a light with this object and turn on the "breaklight" spawnflag, it will turn off that light when it's broken. The light will default to 300 if no lightvalue1 is given.

AUTOMATIC LINKING OPTIONS:
killall - when killed, the brush will kill all connected brushes
hierarch - link all brushes in a hierarchy. The hierarchy priority is set in the
frags field of each brush. Lower numbers will kill higher numbers. If
brushes share the same priority, they will die at the same time.
nolink - don't automatically link this brush with other brushes (use only manual targeting to link)
checkname - link brushes, but also check the name you place in the netname field.
Brushes must then not only touch, but also have the same netname to link
ordered - like hierarch, except that no matter which brush you kill, the brushes
will always break in a certain order. The order is set in the frags field.
The brush with a frags set to 1 will break first, brush with frags set to
2 will break second, etc.

OTHER FIELDS:
translucent - you can see through it
invincible - can't be shot and broken, but will break by linking
-------------------------FIELDS-------------------------
flag - order number
thingtype - type of chunks and sprites it will generate
0 - glass (default)
1 - grey stone
2 - wood
3 - metal
4 - flesh
5 - fire
6 - clay
7 - leaves
8 - hay
9 - brown stone
10 - cloth
11 - wood & leaf
12 - wood & metal
13 - wood stone
14 - metal stone
15 - metal cloth
16 - spider web
19 - clear glass
20 - red glass

health - amount of damage item can take. Default is based on thingtype
glass - 25
grey stone - 75
wood - 50
metal - 100
flesh - 30
fire - 999
clay - 25
leaves - 35
hay - 35
brown stone - 75
cloth - 35
wood&leaf - 35
wood&metal - 75
wood&stone - 65
metal&stone - 90
metal&cloth - 60
others - 25

abslight - to set the absolute light level

--------------------------------------------------------

*/