the importer should auto-delete the scene?

[BrannonKing]

I'm not sure that the importer should delete the scene object returned from the import. It does that at present (via delete pimpl->mScene). However, why would you assume that the importer instances would outlive the scene instance? We also have the aiFreeScene method. Assuming that sets it to null, maybe the importer delete should at least check for null on that?

[kimkulling]

The intermediate scene lifetime is managed by its importer. So if you want to avoid releasing the scene automatically, you can put your importer instance onto the heap and manage its lifetime by yourself.