I think number 2 is closer to my dilema. When I create a scene for new packaging as an example. There are times when I want to bring an older model into the same scene. I have tried importing and pasting the older model into the scene and the model imports or pastes into the new scene fine. It will even render properly with all the textures and shaders in place as long as I don't close the file. The problem is when I save the file and then close it. When I re-open the file to do more work all the models that I have pasted into the new scene get the new scenes default shader. But if I follow what your telling me, I have to save the file with shaders saved internally. Thats sounds logical, thanks for the info, I'll see if that works.