I've just searched for 'gmax script' on the web and a whole lot of stuff pops up, including several by Chris Cookson. One of them (www.tdp.nu/cgi-bin/ plugread_r4.pl?Type=Import&sort_a=Author - 79k - 6 Oct 2002) is for an obj importer which would eliminate the 3ds step. Unfortunately the link to it is broken. I'll keep searching.