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[Updated Guide] Garry's Mod to SFM - The Quick & Easy Way...

By Capt Fuzzy

Here's another in my "updated" series, where I try to bring some of the older guides out there into the 21st century.
Without further ado, here's how to port GMOD assets to Source Filmmaker, the quick & easy way...

NOTE: Please DO NOT ask me to port GMOD assets for you because you don't have Garry's Mod or you are "too lazy" to do it yourself.
I WILL NOT do it, under any circumstances, so save both of us some aggravation, DON'T ASK.
If you are going to use SFM then this is a 'necessary skill' to have. If you don't want to learn how to do it then maybe SFM is not for you.
Garry's Mod routinely goes on sale from time to time and the price is usually more than reasonable considering the sheer amount of assets on the GMOD workshop that you will then have access to.

Award

Created by

Capt Fuzzy
Online

Category: Modding or Configuration, Workshop

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

7 Dec, 2016 @ 9:26am

26 Apr, 2024 @ 7:58am

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Guide Index

Overview

What You Will Need...

Preparation

The Guide

Step-by-step - For those who can't keep up with the video guide...

Related Useful Guides

Comments

What You Will Need...

Source Filmmaker
Garry's Mod
Knowledge of how to 'copy/paste' items in Windows
Knowledge of how to Subscribe to assets in the GMOD Workshop

Preparation

Install Source Filmmaker (If you haven't already)
Install Garry's Mod (If you haven't already)

The Guide

In this video guide, I will walk you through what needs to be done to get your GMOD assets into SFM, start to finish, so pay attention, this isn't that hard folks...

There ya have it!
Garry's Mod assets into Source Filmmaker.

Feel free to leave any comments or questions below and I will try and help you as best as I can.

Step-by-step - For those who can't keep up with the video guide...

Here's how to do this, step-by-step

Subscribe to the assets that you want in the Garry's Mod workshop.
NOTE: You must own Garry's Mod to do this part!
Run Garry's Mod and allow the assets that you subbed to download.
Close Garry's Mod.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your Garry's Mod install.
Typically, it's located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod.
If you haven't done this yet, open the bin folder and locate gmad.exe. Copy (DO NOT DRAG & DROP) gmad.exe to the GarrysMod/garrysmod/addons folder.
Open the GarrysMod/garrysmod/addons folder and this is where you will find the .gma file for the asset that you subbed and downloaded from the workshop.

UPDATED ASSET LOCATION
Garry's Mod has recently updated it's storage location for downloaded assets.
Sometimes its stored in a separate folder, go to the addon after subscribing copy the addon ID from the URL and open your file browser, instead of going to common\garrysmod\addons You actually go to workshop\content\4000\[Addon ID here] it should have the .gma file, if not its either still downloading or in the common\garrysmod\addons folder. (Thanks to Joose_2005 for the updated location)
Drag & drop the .gma file on gmad.exe, a console window will open briefly, when it closes, the extraction is complete and you should now have a folder with the exact same name as the .gma file that you just extracted.
Open this folder, inside there should be two (2) folders: materials and models.
There may be others there as well, but for SFM, we need ONLY the materials and models folders, nothing else.
Select both the models and materials folders and right-click on one of them and select Copy.
Navigate to your SFM install, typically located in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker and open the folder named game.
In this folder, create a new folder and name it garrysmod. Right-click on this folder and select Paste. Your GMOD model should now be installed in SFM.

But we aren't quite finished, there's one more thing to do, enable your new folder.
Open your Steam Library and make sure to select 'Software' at the top of the list.
NOTE: Source Filmmaker is NOT a game, it's software, so it doesn't show-up in the 'Games' list, only the 'Software' list.
Right-click Source Filmmaker and select 'Launch SDK'.
Select 'Edit Path for Selected Mod'.
This will open a window with a list of check boxes, near the bottom of the list, you should find the garrysmod folder that you made earlier with a blank check box next to it. Put a check in the box and you are done. Your garrysmod folder is now enabled in SFM.

Some people will tell you to just drop your new models in the usermod folder, however, I strongly recommend that you DO NOT DO THIS. The usermod folder is a key system folder for SFM and some models may conflict with the default files within the usermod folder. This can cause SFM to "break" and the only fix for this is typically a full re-install of Source Filmmaker.

There you have it, enjoy your GMOD assets in SFM!!

Related Useful Guides

Here's a couple of useful guides related to this one by Pte Jack...

Sometimes when you install a model, the textures don't show up, all you get is this pink and black checkerboard thing. This can be caused by several different things, but mainly it means that the textures aren't where SFM is looking for them.
This guide will show you how to find and fix these issues:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1226795892

There are times when installing a model from the internet, that the model, for whatever reason, doesn't "show" correctly. This is usually due to the materials for that model not being located correctly for SFM. This guide shows you how to fix this issue:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1226526147

322 Comments

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Capt Fuzzy [author] 10 Jun @ 9:21am

Unfortunately, none that I am aware of without importing the model into a program like Blender and fixing it that way, then exporting it back to SFM.
This sounds easy, I know, but believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds...

Rexic The King 10 Jun @ 3:43am

That works but is there a way for the model to just spawn normally without needing to use default slider first?

Capt Fuzzy [author] 10 Jun @ 2:22am

Select the entire model, locate the Default slider and move it all of the way to the right, that should do it...

Rexic The King 7 Jun @ 2:50pm

I did it with a character but they came out in sfm all stretched out. How do I fix that?

Black Cat 31 May @ 1:45am

It worked! Thank you!

OneOfTheHomies 16 May @ 9:27pm

This works sometimes for me, but other times not so much. Sometimes I get errors about artificially incrementing refcount. Even with following the Pte Jack guides I haven't had luck in repairing it.

1993esq 11 Mar @ 5:19pm

Thank you El Pinguino Cremoso!

gritty turkroach 8 Mar @ 7:20pm

I went through hell looking for a solution for this problem, so I'll put it here.

I don't know if this is for all addons, but when I went to the 4000 directory and opened one of the folders, one showed up as bin. That cannot interact with gmad.exe, so what you need to do is simple: just extract the .bin file(s) using 7-zip for example which will give you the gma file. From that point, you can follow the guide above.

Funtimeλuditorium 3 Mar @ 8:03pm

I watched the video and it said to merge models and materials into the SourceFilmmaker/Game/garrysmod folder, but it's asking to replace it instead, any fix?

Sonofzook 28 Feb @ 10:44am

@naotoforlife It works! Thanks a bunch

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