Hammer crashes as soon as I select my custome model :(

After a long and rocky road learning all the tricks and steps to bring a custom model into Hammer (from Softimage ModTool 7.5, in my case), Hammer crashes as soon as I select my model
I have been able to select (and bring in) other HL2:DM models from the list without a problem.
I was able to load and see my model with the Model Viewer though. So I assumed it would be ok now.

Btw, I noticed that although I reduced the height of my cube (in the ModTool) to make it look like a flat panel, when I compiled it and load it in the Model Viewer, my model was still a cube Am I supposed to include its dimensions in the QC file or in StudioCompiler?
I wonder if the above has something to do with the crashing.

Any ideas why Hammer crashes?

Thanks in advance guys

JDL

No idea why it crashes. Since it could be a million things and from what I hear, you just made a cube, I recommend making the model from scratch, following a good tutorial step by step again. Chances are you missed an important step or have a typo in the qc file, etc, etc... Searching could take for ever.

As for the re-sizing... make sure you're not just transforming the model as a whole in Softimage (like moving, scaling, rotating, etc.) but rather transform it into a polygonal mesh before export, doing all your editing in that mode! Otherwise you could save a cube with "0.25% z-axis scaling" which the Source engine doesn't recognize. So you just end up with a cube. You have to edit the vertices manually by moving down the top polygon, etc. for the exporter to recognize the changes.

Basically, Softimage sucks. The program drove me nuts. Try to get your hands on 3DS Max... maybe some test or free mod version... or... you know...

Thank you reaper47
I think I'll start by doing another cube and modifying it as you suggested. And I'll see if that fixes the crashes too.

JDL