I had to check this, but according to my (old) copy of the spec, this is exactly the case: ******************************************************* All grouping statements are state-setting. This means that once a group statement is set, it alpplies (sic) to all elements that follow until the next group statement. This portion of a sample file shows a single element which belongs to three groups. The smoothing group is turned off. g square thing all s off f 1 2 3 4 ... Syntax g group_name1 group_name2 . . . Polygonal and free-form geometry statement. Specifies the group name for the elements that follow it. You can have multiple group names. If there are multiple groups on one line, the data that follows belong to all groups. Group information is optional. group_name is the name for the group. Letters, numbers, and combinations of letters and numbers are accepted for group names. The default group name is default. ******************************************************* Bill