How to keep the orginal clip size into vegas projects?
 

I for the life of me cant figure out how to bring a smaller clip (say 320x240) into a vegas project that is set for 1280x720 without vegas enlarging the small clip to fill the frame. how can I just import it without this automatic enlarging process, so it just sits on top of the other larger clips in its native size? thanks...

IMO, the easiest way is to use Pan/Crop to shrink it back down to it's original size.

I had tried the pan crop tool and the dont stretch button, and when I try to scale it, it will just make the window smaller but the video underneath is still made to fill the 1280x720 project size...gotta be something simple I am missing

...when I try to scale it, it will just make the window smaller...

Are you grabbing it by the (very) small box in the corner and dragging it outwards?
You can change the Zoom % (under the Workspace settings) if you need more working room.

...and the "dont stretch" button...

Simply enter 1280 as the Width (directly under Position) on the left side.
This will do the same thing as dragging it to be smaller.