Michael

Let me be clear - We have two issues - one is grouping - the other is style translation

As for the first - as we have agreed - it will be useful.

As for the second - there's not yet a clear vision what would be the best but i want to make a suggestion.

As I had some time to think over where styles should go (layers or materials) I came to a conclusion that it should be materials

Sorry I misguided you first as I was mislead by what you once said regarding styles as layers. Layers are of no particular use in Skp (as Pilou also mentioned) so I suggest a new paradigm - say I need to model a pen or a teapod which isn't quite easy to do in su
So i go moi and model it there - then i assign different styles for different parts of a model and them export it to su (for presentation)
In su the moi styles automatically traslated into materials and if there is an already setup material named same as style - then style becomes that material
By that I have fully prepared beautiful materials in su as well as entourage and a moi model ready to be styled, rendered or documented. That makes sense to me. I Mean I assign SKP materials right inside MoI

And when you introduce groups in MoI those may become layers or a group of groups as i previously mentioned.

this paradigm will significantly intensify use of MoI in my everyday practice

what you think?

Regards
Igor