Sometimes 3ds files might not be the right flavor for byrce but will work in other programs. If you have poser try importing the .3ds files into that and exporting as wavefront obj. if you don't have poser I think P3 is a freebee(I don't know much about P3's export capabilities but I think it will work P4 definately does) . you might check on that. In the meantime you should try a format converter - if you need some suggestions on that I'll try to post a couple of links later if someone doesn't beat me to it.