Hammer editor - "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

[Vissova]

Hello.
I'm trying to create a map for Synergy, but I'm getting an error. When I compile, I get this message:
The command failed. Windows reported the error:
"The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

I've never seen this error before. How do I fix this?

[Kazitor]

Restarting your computer would probably work.

But better options:
Any idea what program/process could be holding things up? Depends what's being stopped, too. I'm guessing the compilers can't access the vmf. Do you have it open in anything apart from hammer?

You could, if you had to, close everything and compile from the command line.

[Vissova]

I'll try restarting my computer first, because I have no clue what could be using... whatever is being used. I don't really understand what is even being used by another process.

-edit-
Nope. Restarting doesn't work. :s

[Kazitor]

Originally posted by Vissova:

I don't really understand what is even being used by another process.

I'm guessing the VMF, if not the compiler, probably.

Originally posted by Vissova:

Nope. Restarting doesn't work. :s

Now that's just weird. Have you tried compiling without launching Hammer/the SDK/whatever, and just going from the command line?

[Vissova]

I've never tried compiling via command line. Could you give me a step-by-step process, unless it's detailed somewhere?

[Kazitor]

Originally posted by Vissova:

I've never tried compiling via command line. Could you give me a step-by-step process, unless it's detailed somewhere?

In Hammer's advanced compile dialog, it actually shows all the parameters that are used for each compiler. Navigate to the /bin directory, and run the commands there (substituting the relevant file name/s).

I've never done it myself, either, so this may not be foolproof. I'm sure you can work it out :)

[Vissova]

Actually, never mind. It turns out it was successfully compiling the map this whole time and the error message didn't really mean anything. That's very strange.
I wish I knew how to make the error message go away, but at least compiling works. Thank you for your help anyway.

[Kazitor]

No problem, I am intrigued as to what could possibly be causing such an error.

Regardless, good that you sorted it out.

[Reboot]

It's because the VMF is inside the game's maps folder.

During the compile process, the BSP file is generated inside the VMF's folder. The compiler then tries to move the compiled BSP to the target game's maps folder. However, it seems to fail because the BSP file is already there.

[Frisky]

I'm late to the party, but a solution I found to this very problem is...
Save the VMF with another name. So like dm_mapname_v2 instead of v1.
It should compile properly now.