ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but this error means that I have a single brush which has a single edge that is being devided too many times (more than 12).
so I've gone back and forth through my map and I can't find it.
I've chopped up quite a few brushes and I'm still getting this error.

Am I wrong about what this error is?
is there some way to make the thing tell me where the error is?
Also, this is for Q3 if it matters.

Normally the error message also gives you coordinates of the location of the brush. Zoom out all you can, you might also have a big brush surrounding your map.

no coordinates.
I'm getting no info other then what is in the topic title.
I have searched my map over and over again for large brushes and chopped up every one I could find.
Still nothing.
I did manage to remove the error temporarily by making my entire map detail exept for the caulk hull.
Naturaly this is not a real solution.

....

my map is ruined

to make everything detail I selected everything and made it detail, but then I hit undo.
and it duplicated everything.
every brush, entity, model, light, everything got duplicated several times.
where I had about 3500 brushes I now have more than 10000.
screwed.
I'm screwed.
I was so happy with the enormus amount of progress I made in the last few days.
it had all gone so well and it looked so beautiful.
til this goram error.
I've been mapping for about 4 years and I've never been so completely stoped by any error before.
I've been working on this one map for about 3 years.
it's my white whale.
last wednesday I started overhauling it.
making big changes, and it was really starting to work.
I was really feelin' it.
I probably put in atleast 20 hours of work this week on it.
all gone.
I suppose I can copy bits and pieces out so that I don't have to redo quite so much.
but since being an art major means I also have to be a philosipher and writer aswell, I won't have the time like I did this past week since classes started monday.
I am so utterly screwed.
shoulda seen it coming.
I always loose the things I care about most.

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-160244.html

Dude, don't give up so easily.  If everything got duplicated, just delete the duplicates.

well I did forget about the .bak file but I just check and it got saved after the duplicates were made.
the notepad thing is a good idea, I might try that for some parts.
but what I think I'm going to do is just start completely from scratch.
there are a number of things in this map that I wish I could change but just haven't wanted to go through the trouble.
now that the map has been all the way up through beta once, I have a better idea of what works and what doesn't and I can make changes accordingly.
especialy since I have a much better understanding of the engine than I did when I started this 3 years ago.

Thanks for all your help.