I'm pretty sure 2.5.0 allows that, at least for DMX.

When trying to make an OmniWrench mod for Team Fortress 2, I once again found that the exported shading was not like the shading in Blender. Now if I enable "Auto-smooth" for the mesh with 180 degrees, I get the same shading in Blender as in the export. So then I selected everything in Edit mode, and used the "smooth faces/edges/vertices" thing, which fixed it.
But why does the export use the shading from auto-smooth when auto-smooth is NOT enabled?

Experienced with Blender Source Tools 2.4.1, Blender 2.72b 64-bit, Windows 7 64-bit.

That link doesn't work. Edit: It lacks an S at the end.

Wasn't there something about "DON'T post bugs unless you're using an official release", as in ones released on the Steam group page here, not the one from GitHub?

By only having the face mesh on the object, probably.

Well, if the imported VTA only had vertices for the face, but the SMD had vertices for much more than the face... Yeah, those vertices would also be exported, and could cause a bigger file-size.

Well... The best you could do would be to look up "compile mdl valve wiki" on Google.

Try updating to the latest version of Blender as well as the Blender Source Tools, and make sure Blender exports the correct mesh, as well as the QC reads the correct mesh.

Edit: Texture? Why would that be saved?

I mean re-exporting the DMX mesh from Blender before trying to compile the MDL again.

1 should be fine, but you say that doesn't work... Did you remember to re-export?