Render Material on Part - correct way to refer to a library material

I have a part definition, to which I want to attach a material with a Geomety Map defined. When I look in the Render Properties of the Family/Part editor, I see a Render Palette can be assigned. When I go to RMC > Properties, I can open the Material Editor, in which I can open a Palette to see the materials available in dgnlibs. I can go RMC > Assign To Part, which gives me the option to assign it to a part.

I notice sometimes the material seems to be coming from a dgnlib file (see image 1), sometimes from the local file (see image 2). I don't seem to be able to edit this in this menu. It seems once the material is somewhere local in the file, it refers to the local file, which I think you should avoid in the Part libaray (since they are for all projects with that Dataset).

  1. What is the correct way to edit the Rendering Properties, so to be sure the part refers to a library palette and not a local one (and is for every file with that same dataset the same)? From within which file do you edit the Family/Part settings? (for all other defined things in the Editor it doesn't seem to matter, but for the material assigned it seems different);
  2. What is this $(_DGNLIB) variable I seem to get there? I used the Configuration Explorer, but this variable doesn't seem to exist, but still appears in front of bothe the dgnlib or dgn file (which should suggest it would refer to a path where these files are found?)

Image 1:

Image 2:

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