Have you tried splitting the item in Vue?  When you look in the material summary do you see different parts but with the same mat?  Over on the right panel do you see the item with a box with a plus sign that can be expanded out?

Right click on the item once in Vue & then click on edit object - then click on split that should do the job if your answers to the last 2 questions are NO.

You will come across some items which cannot be split out - some Japanese models from 3dchaya won't split.

Hi dlk30341,
unfortunately there is nothing I can do in Vue. The file has only the default material and no parts. That set me to wondering if other programs, like Carrara, can split 3ds files.

I bought some really nice models from cornacopia.......they look killer in the scenes and render really well.....( I will make a post next week)

I did wish I could take some of them into Maya and delete parts off of it....

is there a way to break open these models you get from cornicopia?

I know its meant to be idiot proof and specifically wraps shaders, texture, and model into one.....

but

It would be nice to peel a building off one of those dynotopia grids......

There are several ways you can do this.  The first is to see if the object may be split in the  polymesh options box.  Sometimes 3D/Obj objects come in one color/texture but they are will split in the options box.   For instance the dystopia modules will split into 20 some materials.  You can split those off.   You can save the models (if allowed) as 3DS or OBJ. objects and export them.  I'm not too familiar with Maya but I think you should be able to import Obj./3DS  files.  You can also take a program such as Wings 3D and import the models and cut and whack to your hearts content.  (Also it gives you ideas how to build things).  You can also assign materials to the mesh.  Which when the object is imported into Vue can be assigned with Vue materials or edited.  

Another free program is Blender.

Note: some objects available from Cornacopia are locked and cannot be exported as 3DS/OBJ files from Vue.

Hope this helps a little. 

About the original question ...

Whether these can be "split" or not in another 3d modelling program depends upon how the original model-builder made them.

First, if you are not getting the associated texture files, look in the original zip package, or whatever package was used to acquire the *.3ds models to see if texture files were included with the model. The *.3ds file format is such that texture files (in *.jpg, or *.tiff or *.tga or *.png, whatever) must accompany the model. They are not "baked" on it. Since it is common for many model-builders to make only the gray-scale model available, it may be that you never did have textures for something like this bed.

Second, most modellers who put something out in the *.3ds file format, do already have the model built with sub-components. In fact, it is relatively rare for a model-builder putting out freestuff to go to the work of gluing up all the pieces in a coherent way. (Those of us who model at Cornucopia3d normally go to a lot of extra work to build a rational set of sub-components for people to use.)  So, in almost any 3d app that can read a *.3ds formatted file, you would expect to see the sub-components.

Third, low-end 3d programs do not have "splitter" functions, but almost all medium-grade and all high-end 3d apps are capable of splitting a model into sub-components, whether the original model-builder did so or not.

So, this long answer to your original question is "Yes" - a model normally can be split into sub-components in a medium-expensive or high-end 3d modelling program.