How can I ensure a material is updated when reimporting a changed 3ds file

Hi,

I would like to know how to reimport updated materials.

If I change material in Cheetah3d, save as 3ds (or jas) then only the model gets updated when Unity reimports the file. Any changes to materials do not get updated.

If I delete the material in Unity to force a reimport, then all the shared material links with other meshes are lost, and then the whole process turns into a mess of deleting mesh objects, reimporting everything and rebuilding all the prefabs.

I just want to import a material update, and I'm hoping there's a way to do this. All suggestions welcome.

Cheers James