I recently purchased a pack of 3ds ships out of the marketplace and some work just ducky.rella.

Others look great on one side, but the other side is missing some major polygons

I have also tried importing other 3ds files and they look like a freeze frame 1 millisecond after a very large internal explosion.

I guess I'm frustrated and at my wits end, I did try searching the forums, but I read really fast, and it got really confusing really fast, so I'm just asking straight up.

Quote - I recently purchased a pack of 3ds ships out of the marketplace and some work just ducky.rella.

Others look great on one side, but the other side is missing some major polygons

I have also tried importing other 3ds files and they look like a freeze frame 1 millisecond after a very large internal explosion.

I guess I'm frustrated and at my wits end, I did try searching the forums, but I read really fast, and it got really confusing really fast, so I'm just asking straight up.

There is a detailed explanation of that effect somewhere around here.  IIRC, it has to do with object centers being displaced on import and there are ways to correct it.  But, I think it may involve export dialogues from 3DS.  So, if you don't have that, it may not be correctable unless you can find a converter that handles that.

Attached Link: http://www.3dmenagerie.com/goodies/tut/abng.htm

There's all kinds of things that can go wrong, but it's most likely a reversed normals problem. Most meshes have only a single side that looks solid from one angle and is invisible in the 180 degree reversed angle. A lot of objects are created in other programs by modeling half the object and flipping it to create the symmetrical other half. That often leaves reversed polygons.

A quick, not perfect fix is to use the grouping tool in a broad fashion to quickly get all the visible normals forward. The linked tutorial provides a better means of doing the job correctly. The below technique only works for one view and has to be repeated every time the camera angle changes because that change shows other reversed normals.

Once in the Group Editor:
New Group tab
Click in the Preview Window and draw a rectangle around the entire object
Click Remove All
Click Reverse Group Normals

That will correct all the reversed normals for that one view. The downside of this broad approach is that all the good normals, that currently cannot be seen, are reversed.

Another better fix is to click the left and right arrows by the group name (<< and >>) to see if some of the grouped parts of the mesh are totally reversed and reverse just the bad ones.  This won't work if there are bad triangles within a group. 

You might try using the free PoseRay application to converting them to .obj format which Poser tends to prefer.
mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/ 

this is some seriously good info guys

i did some further testing

bryce 6.1 sees it just fine, but i couldn't manipulate the mesh @ all, i tried ungrouping and regrouping and it just wouldn't really allow for anything beyond transition or posing (rotate, translate, scale). I remember when i had bryce 3 back in the day and it had modeling capabilities, did they hide that or get rid of it? (similiar to truespace, grab a vertex or polygon and drag it)
It really burned my biscuits that it worked(rendered), and im not real sure why. I did learn the difference between normal, positive and negative, so i did learn something

it also appeared fine in dazstudio, but i can't stand that program, and refuse to use it.

in carrara 5 pro however, the missing polygons were there but the mesh was coloured light blue, where the missing polygons were was dark blue. It had a little tick mark under 'smart'. I tried exporting it from here about 5-6 times, doing a mathmatical elimination of variables based on the export options. None worked.

I haven't tried vue 6 pro yet, i expect it would b similar to bryce. i had a tank (mobloc) that had the issue of exploding, vue saw it fine, renderend it fine but poser loaded it all jacked up.

i also use propview, so i can see the mesh, and all the negative i experienced in poser was visible in propview. which furthers the model is built in a wanky way, and not simply one piece of software with a weak 3ds importer, or the operator's ignorance on the importance and relevance over a half dozen check marks involving the import dialog, ;-)
Granted, my ignorance has a big part in it, but that's why we learn

My next hope is maybe a demo of 3dsmax and it allowing me to export these. Which I think I have done before years ago. When yer downloading freebies and not paying attention, and ya have a handful of max files with cool names. The curiosity is simply too much...

Thank u all fer the input thus far and any who have any other insight, it is massively appreciated.
I also noticed a program called polytrans (400.00 US) which solidified that I'm not alone, but a converter in that price range is way out there as a 'not gonna happen'. I was mad enough to drop 20 bux if necessary, but that's all the convenience is worth. Learning this will be worth way more

Sort of off topic question, what vid cards are good nowadays? My roomate ordered a new system (amd 6000+/ 2gigz ram) but she left the integrated video (geforce 7050pv; nvidia 630a) as she isn't a 3d freak like me. The board has a pciEx16 slot. And based on just the little I knew (sys requirments for the software I have) I was thinking a geforce 9300gts (512mb ram). Am I going the wrong way?

Attached Link: http://www.nevercenter.com/

You might try Silo 2, a small but powerful modeler, it has a 30 day demo after which it can be used as a file converter.

good luck

I downloaded PoseRay and it allowed me to see a little better

its show n tell time

now the reality

Ah, I thought you were talking about something more like this:

It looks like a normals problem or some weird doubled mesh poking through.

Remove the normals by saving it without them.  It will also shrink-down the file size considerably (30% sometimes) Poser doesn't use normals. 
*You can use UVMapper to scrub the normals from an object if the app you're using won't do it.  Just open and save it without checking the "Export Normals" box.

I think I have that very mesh you posted a pic of and experienced that
points @ that while jumping up and down
it was soooooOOOoooo frustrating!

did you find a fix for the exploded.ness?