so I am running tool on my map. Got everything almost fixed, except for:
### ERROR couldn't build bsp because of overlapping surfaces (orange).
### ERROR couldn't build bsp2d.
### ERROR couldn't build leaf.
### WARNING found nearly coplanar surfaces (red and green).
### ERROR failed to import collision bsp.
Now obviously, you look for the orange errors. I am, and have tried hiding my map and only viewing the errors in 3ds max, yet I cannot find an orange plane anywhere at all. I've looked thoroughly.
Any ideas?

You might have, as it says, overlapping faces. It could be caused by an edge that needs turned, so look at various places in your model from all angles, especially where you might have meshed in separate structures (say, a base). Even if you can't find orange-colored errors, your WRL should still identify where the errors are located, assuming you have a correct WRL importer.

when you import the wrl file, leave create primitives checked then import it.
click on the select by name tool and scroll to the 1st name item starting with #
hit Z to zoom in on that error then see how it looks and fix it, after it's fixed go back to select by name button delete the error you just fixed then move on to the the next #.
that's it just keep fixing any you see with that icon at the start of the name.
that way saves having to look for the orange colour when it could be hard to find due to some other stuff marked with colours.

edit: also when you add things like a plane with a special symbol added to the texture,
for example rock_cliff# (that would be a plane with the texture added but the plane would not have to be sealed). if you placed that plane touching the bsp geometry then you would end up with an overlapping surface too.

Edited by ally on Dec 4, 2012 at 10:23 PM

Thank you both. Thanks Ally, the Z shortcut was what did it. I tried finding this sorta thing, but didn't know how till now. Finally found the orange plane, it was so so small and hidden that only when i zoomed into it a lot did i find it. Fixed!

no problem, also forgot to mention you would have seen other items in the select by name list.
they would have been called (sep) they are just markers they are placed where the grid would be inj the viewport, you can delete them too, they cause no problems when you run the tool structure command but it's just better to delete them as they referred to the errors you fixed.