TF2 HUD Editing Guide
In-Depth: Minimal Mode
Minimal Mode (or minmode) is a alternate mode for the in-game HUD. In the default HUD it is a minimal take, with unnecessary HUD elements removed and less important ones moved to less conspicuous locations.
In custom HUDs, minmode is often used for an alternative scoreboard (usually one for competitive sixes).
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Minmode Setting
Its a client-side setting, so It can be turned on and off for each user. It can be changed in the TF2 options menu or via this console command:
cl_hud_minmode 1 // to turn it on
cl_hud_minmode 0 // to turn it off
The setting persists over TF2 sessions, meaning, turning it on will keep it on even after closing and re-opening TF2.
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How it Works
Minmode works by having alternate properties inside resource files for minmode. These alternate properties are just normal properties with the _minmode suffix:
"xpos" "c185" "xpos_minmode" "r120" "ypos" "290" "zpos" "1" "wide" "200" "wide_minmode" "110" "tall" "20" "tall_minmode" "15"
From this example: when not in minmode the xpos of this control will be c185, and when in minmode it will be r120
You can use this on most properties for all in-game resource files.
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What its Used For
The default HUD uses minmode for a less cluttered HUD; with unnecessary things removed ("visible_minmode" "0") and less important things moved or made smaller.
Custom HUDs usually use minmode for a sixes mode scoreboard. Sixes is a competitive game format in which each team has only 6 players. For this you might want a smaller less obstrusive scoreboard.
Having the smaller sixes mode scoreboard on minmode, means you can easily switch back to a full scoreboard when going back to playing with more players by turning minmode off.
BUT, the sky is the limit. Really, whatever uses you can think of for minmode, you can do.