Launching tools directly
From Valve Developer Community
Some SDK tools, including Hammer and its compilers, HLMV and Faceposer are liable to not work properly when launched from a Windows shortcut. Unless you run them from the SDK Launcher you will be unable to load content from GCF files and may experience crashes.
There is a very easy solution to this problem: make the application's working directory "%sourcesdk%\bin\orangebox\" (or \ep1). You may have to type the path to the SDK folder out in full in some places.
- In a shortcut, edit the "Start In" field.
- From the command line, use the
cdcommand. - In Batch Compiler, set the BinRoot variable.
Not all tools require this. Most command-line ones work fine with any working directory.
