Does 'loadModel' actually hit the disk again and then duplicates the model data, or does the ModelManager do some kind of caching?
You're right it's probably not the best name for a method that does some caching, used here to avoid decoding twice the same 3D model file and to share the geometry data of a model.Unfortunately, the plugin is not for changing colors of different parts of a model, it's merely an exporter. :( Sorry to disappoint you!
Let's hope my explanations will be helpful for an other developer! 
That probably makes it of limited interest to others (especially, since it is a homebrew format I want to export to), but I could still ask my boss if we can open-source it, if you think somebody else might benefit from it.
It's always interesting to see how other developers use some API, even if very few or none end-users use it.----------------------------------------
Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D creator
