Render Layers Acting Up

[user_deleted]

Are maya's render layers reliable?

I am starting to use render layers for the first time, and although it all sounds great, I'm getting all kinds of errors when assigning shaders and then switching layers. It's not remembering systematically what shaders I assign. I was just wondering if this is known to be buggy or if it's me. Yes, I have turned on "auto overrides".

I should say that I used these for the last couple hours and everything was fine, so I was pretty happy... and then suddenly it's acting very strange.
Any ideas?

specifically I'm getting this message, which is a red flag for sure

CODE
// Warning: file: C:/Program Files/Alias/Maya7.0/scripts/others/renderLayerBuiltinPreset.mel line 243: Node 'Iris_SubDShape.instObjGroups[0].objectGroups[0]': cannot make assignment to 'set5' shader. //
// Error: file: C:/Program Files/Alias/Maya7.0/scripts/others/renderLayerBuiltinPreset.mel line 243: Connection not made: 'Iris_SubDShape.instObjGroups[0].objectGroups[0]' -> 'set5.dagSetMembers[-1]'.  Source node will not allow the connection. //

[joojaa]

sounds like somebody changed the naming... hard to say. Anyway the entire laer system is pretty much obsolete.

[gwelch]

We are still on 7 and have had similar render layer troubles...We have found it most reliable to not assign shaders per object on layers, rather, use the whole layer override if you can. If not an option, it also helps to assign your shaders on the master layer when you want them applied on all the other layers.

[user_deleted]

joojaa what alternatives are there? external plugin/script?
running m7...

I found what it was, this error came when I tried to assign a shader on a per layer basis to a bunch of components (faces in this case).
assigning to objects worked fine...