Missing meshes
Hi
There seems to be a lot of meshes missing - after compiling half of my decor is gone! How can I know for sure that the game can see a mesh that I can see in the mdl viewer? I am having this problem with particle systems as well (I extracted those from pak01_dir.vpk to see them in particle chooser in case you wonder, trying to use env_fire in those shredders) in this same scene.
Here are a few pics to illustrate what I mean:
Thanks in advance! 
Ensure that you are using the correct entity for the prop's intended usage. In hammer's model viewer, look at the info tab for your chosen model, and note the checkboxes for static, dynamic etc. These should generally correspond to the entity that you are using for the model, ie if the "static" box is checked, use it with a prop_static, if the "dynamic" box is checked, use with prop_dynamic, and so on.
Thanks for the tip about the checkboxes, I hadn't noticed those! That did the trick for my meshes, now I just need those fire effects. I'm hesitant about starting a new thread just to ask about that - any ideas?
Not sure on your env_fire issue, i've used it in a couple of maps and it worked okay with no special steps. If you want it to be permanently on without needing to trigger it, make sure you set the flags to "start on", in addition to setting the "start disabled" option to "no". Other than that, i'm not sure.
No luck with my particles tonight. 