SFM Model Not Appearing Under Search

[destructicons]

Although I'll admit I literally just started up SFM for the first time ever a few hours ago, I took the time to try and solve the problem on my own for a good 5 hours before going here. After seeing that models saved from online sites outside of Steam should be saved to the game folder under the SFM download itself, tried that, and eventually saw I also needed to extract it. Performed both. Thought it was going to work since I then saw the models listed under the search in SFM but for some reason none of the ones downloaded from third party sites were able to be seen when inserted. Granted, I had also put them under the usermod folder and not their own individual folder like I saw as a common suggestion. For some reason the models would only be listed when under usermod. Every other time in-SFM search drew a blank. All the while even under usermod none of the models would appear in the workspace. My primary issue isn't that it only shows up under the usermod folder, I can live with that. It's that each time regardless of what I kinda tried to move around the models would be invisible when inserted. I remember under console the only error I saw was about not finding a .vvd file even though all extracted had one under their model folders. It didn't give the same errors when I opened ones downloaded off Steam, even though the files in the folders seemed to have the exact same contents, name and file size excluded. After creating and deleting countless folders thinking maybe separating the materials and models folders would fix it, or maybe if I retried downloading, putting under game, putting in a folder, and extracting all over again, it would work. I retraced my steps thinking I did something wrong each time but I'm clueless as to just what that wrong step is. I'm hoping that I can get at least some form of help from here because I'm pretty close to just calling it quits.

[Marco Skoll]

Oh dear Gabe! Paragraphs, please!

Originally posted by destructicons:

Granted, I had also put them under the usermod folder and not their own individual folder like I saw as a common suggestion.

There's several very good reasons not to use usermod, so please don't. Install folders well sorted by genre/category will save you a LOT of headaches in the long run.

As far as why they don't appear other than in usermod, then the "suggestions" you read will likely have covered this.

You need to right-click SFM in your Steam Library, select "Launch SDK" -> "Edit Search Paths for Selected Mod" -> tick the box for the relevant install folder (AFTER installing something in it, or it won't be detected).

The fact that folders can be/need to be switched on and off is an important part of content management, particularly as you install more and more. SFM has a limit to how much content can be indexed at once, and if you exceed that, you'll get crashes, so having things well organised to disable content that's not currently needed saves you a lot of headaches in the end.

You'll save yourself trouble in the long run by cleaning anything you've put in usermod out and instead sorting it properly.

It's that each time regardless of what I kinda tried to move around the models would be invisible when inserted.
I remember under console the only error I saw was about not finding a .vvd file even though all extracted had one under their model folders.

The fact that there is a VVD file is irrelevant if it's not where SFM expects to find it.

Source models are made up of at least three files, and SFM finds the other parts of the model based on a filepath that is "baked" into the main MDL file, not by looking for matching files in the same folder.
As such, moving the model anywhere except where it's supposed to be installed (it can be put in any "mod" folder, but it needs to be in the right place relative to that) will cause it to not fully load.

See here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1226526147

[destructicons]

Thanks, that helped a bunch! I didn't see the edit search paths solution much either due to personal error or the topics I found not covering it. I'll try this out once I recover from the minor headache this gave me. Wish I just asked the forum as my first option.