[choo-chee]

I was happy to download the newer material library, but I think some materials (like towels) are messed up now...the path to ior files changes instead of ..program files\next limit..... to maxwell production\.... and they do not work unless manually changed, and this craps a lot of work. I can suggest changing library format to something like this: you import a material to the library, it checks all path locations, than COPIES it with the desired name and all files (ior, textures etc) to a specific library folder, instead of the way you have to copy the material and stuff manually. that way you keep your original and you get a 100% functioning library. My other renderer does this (arc render pro) and it's a perfect solution.

[choo-chee]

more explanation: the library also can hold a cache that is a small database telling where to check path for additional textures for a material. e.g., I create a material with a texture for reflectance, bump and also ior file. all is located in my temp dir exept for the ior which is -let's say- in my downloads dir. So, I import the material to the library module. it checks for the extra files, finds them (asks for folder locations if not), then copies the new material to library folder (e.g. d:\library\maxwell\materials\bricks), and positions the extra files in logical locations (such as d:\library\maxwell\ior and d:\library\maxwell\textures and d:\library\maxwell\bumpmaps ...), and also adds it to the database with thumbnails. not too hard to do, but very organized...

[codygo]

I keep all my textures in one texture folder.

When I make or download a new material, I simply dump everything in there and haven't had a problem yet. I think the best sollution is to promote a namespace standard, like appending your username to the front of each material texture, followed by a unique name of the material (not just "concrete" "fabric" etc), and then its function within a material such as codygo_uniqueMatName_bump1.jpg. That's if you're going to share the files with different people, if it's just for yourself then you can probably omit your id.

This is similar to how programming modules are shared without clashing variable names.