two questions and a plea

First, I was wondering how to add weapons nodes to structures (what modeling program to use, requisite plugins,etc).  I'd also like to know how to use the particle forge, as I can't figure it out.   If someone can point me in the direction of a good guide, or give me a rundown on how to use it then I could start messing around with FX, but until then I'm stuck coding.  I've been getting several errors in debugging.  Here they are:

Assert @ c:\projects\Perforce\SinsDiplomacy\main\CodeSource\Engine/Archive/Archive.h(264)

elementCount == data->Size()

Assert @ c:\projects\Perforce\SinsDiplomacy\main\CodeSource\Engine/DataStructures/FixedArray.h(118)

i < MAX_SIZE

Assert @ c:\projects\Perforce\SinsDiplomacy\main\CodeSource\GS/Entity/Interfaces/IAbility.cpp(300)

m_aiUseTime == AIUseTime::Invalid

Assert @ c:\projects\Perforce\SinsDiplomacy\main\CodeSource\GS/Entity/Interfaces/IAbility.cpp(175)

false