Rockstar, I'm not familiar with the onion-effect issue, as I dont use the feature...
As for the animation display in the scene, I also suffered from this problem, having to restart the program just to place the animation after loading it. An easier way is once you import the object animation, instead of exiting the program, just select a different scene, then go back to the scene you are working on. This actually loads the animation. You will have to select the object, click the "preview" tab, and check the box for the animation. This will make it show up as a normal image would in the upper left corner, and allow you to move it around and such as you need to. Hope this helped.