I must have some default setting wrong for this because I’ve tried it with new scenes.

I’ll

[LIST=1]
[*]create a new scene
[*]create a new material
[*]export the material library
[*]then create another new scene
[*]import the material library
[*]but (this is where the problem arises) the imported library is empty.
[/LIST]
I’ve tried exporting a material library using the property editor and the material manager. Either way, I’m unable to get my materials from one scene to another. No error messages, every thing looks right as I’m going through the steps, except at the very end when I’m left with an “imported” empty library. I say “imported” only because the library is displayed by name in the material manager and in the explorer. But is an empty library an imported one?

I’m not sure, but try installing the latest version of Crosswalk from the Softimage Downloads, to see if it helps.  Material Libraries are .xsi files.

Maybe you have selected to view “Used materials” from the pull down menu at the top - in an empty scene this results in a blank library view.

Its should say “All materials”.

I already have the latest version of Crosswalk because I use it a lot. But why would that matter with this problem?

The first thing I thought of was actually checking my settings for viewing materials. That wasn’t it either. Good suggestion though! I’m still hoping the solution is something as simple as that.

So, uhm, yeah… maybe it’s a personal problem of mine, something quirky about my system.

will check tomorrow, in the mean time you’ll have to use merge scene to do this.

Here’s a new twist to the mystery that I discovered today: I can get it to work if I close and restart XSI but as soon as I open the scene I’m working on, it stops working across all scenes. I can’t import material libraries even into a fresh new scene unless I close and restart XSI. Does this mean I’ve somehow corrupted my project? I’ll try starting afresh with a new scene, importing everything, then see if the problem persists.

Yes, I was able to reverse the process by importing/exporting the model instead of the material, however, in future situations there may not be such simple alternatives, no?

We are not able to reproduce this problem. If you think the problem is related to your scene, you could clean it up of the unnecessary stuff to reproduce the problem and send it (or a link) to us.