Wow, first to find this thread at the top of the Google search results ("Octane Step import") and then to see that I already posted in it 7 years ago.
A lot of things have happened in those seven years, but apparently not for Octane. I'm no longer a student and where I work it feels as if Keyshot has reached the end of the line and we're looking for replacements, but I just downloaded the current Octane demo and boy, I guess I'll keep looking. Talk about bare bones still... no import options... no material library... no user friendliness.
(Also, I just wanted to see if I could remember my password to this forum, haha.)