Imported eye glasses twice one I can see through the other is opaque. Why? In the same file on the same level in the same viewport, importing the same object (a pair of glasses, OBJ) one has transparency the other doesn't seem to be able to go transparent even tho the preview orb is transparent. I even changed the material to the lens that was transparent and that did work either. 

I haven't edited any any nodes. 

The viewport shading is set to material.

What should I pay attention to in order to make the lenses show transparent.
The problem is actually just a viewport deficiency. If you switch to rendered view or render out a shot, all is well :)

Blender's viewport only attempts to make it look right...to see what's really happening, render it out.