Well, I was hoping Max 2008 would have fixed this, but apparently it did not. I still lose material selections when I re-link a dwg file into max. It doesn’t feel any faster either like they claimed.
I have “Use scene material definitions” and “Use scene material assignments on Reload” checked.
The FLM worked great up until Max 9, I don’t understand why it was messed with in Max 9 and still remains pretty much useless in an arch-design-visualize production pipeline.

Ok, the problem has only happened when I load files saved previously from Max 9. So far, starting from scratch with Max 2008 the FLM retains material assignments. This means we have to re-link the dwg’s into a new Max 2008 and re-do the texture assignments, but at least we won’t have to do it again...which is nice. I should also mention that the FLM retains which layers to relink after closing and opening Max, before it wouldn’t remember which layers you had checked.

Have you had any errors when reloading files, several times?

No - I haven’t had any problems with max scenes created entirely in Max 2008, even with multiple re-loads.

Max 2008 only allows file links to import ADT materials if you use the “Layer, Blocks as Node Hierarchy - Split by Material” setting in the advanced settings tab of the initial file link dialog box.

I wonder if that setting did not exist in Max 9 (it does not exist in Max 8) and maybe that is why you are losing your materials.

Max no longer brings in ADT materials using the “Layer, Blocks as Node Hierarchy” setting (which it did in Max 8).

The original problem with Max 9 was every time you re-loaded the drawing, it would loose materials assignments - I use VRay so I never assigned materials in a cad app like desktop, or autocad architecture...whatever they are calling it these days. The only thing I want Max to bring in is clean geometry, separated out by layer. Upon a reload, I wanted those nice VRay materials to stick to the geometry, and with a model started out in Max 2008, it does! yay…