All, I have chapter1.tex: \startproduct chapter1 \project book \startbodymatter \setupheadnumber[chapter][0] \chapter[chap:1]{Functions} \component chapter1/section1 \component chapter1/section2 \component chapter1/section3 \component chapter1/section4 \stopbodymatter \stopproduct All the files for chapter1 are in a folder named chapter1, for example chapter1/section1.tex. All the figures for chapter1 are in chapter1/figures/. section2.tex starts with: \startcomponent section2 \project book \product chapter1 \usemodule[newmat] \usemodule[math-ext] \usemodule[fig-base] \usefigurebase[figures/figlibSection2] \section[section:graph]{The Graph of a Function} In chapter1/figures/figlibSection2.xml, there is: <figure> <file>sec2foura.png</file> <label>foura</label> <copyright>College of the Redwoods Mathematics Department</copyright> <comment></comment> </figure> section4.tex starts with: \startcomponent section4 \project book \product chapter1 \usemodule[newmat] \usemodule[math-ext] \usemodule[fig-base] \usefigurebase[figures/figlibSection4] In chapter1/figures/figlibSection4.xml, there is: <figure> <file>sec4foura.png</file> <label>foura</label> <copyright>College of the Redwoods Mathematics Department</copyright> <comment></comment> </figure> The difficulty was this. When I compiled chapter1.tex, the \externalfigure[foura] in section4.tex used the foura from figlibSection2.xml. My workaround was to rename the second instance \externalfigure [sec4foura], but I am wondering a bit about this mechanism.