I just moved a prop I created in Max to Poser, and now it is giving me all sorts of problems.  I hope someone can point me to a resource or give me a helpful comment.

I exported the prop by way of a 3ds file, btw.

I parented it to the hand of a male figure (ie so that he is holding it).  Now when I try to rotate the prop, it does crazy things.  It will skew wildly about the axis, distorting the shape.

The axis of the prop has been reset to the center of the object, when I had it on one end in MAX.  when I try to move the axis to its original position in Poser, it moves (very quickly) away from the parented hand, and changes shape and rotates.

What did I do wrong?  Is another export format more stable?  Can I fix this in Poser or is there something I have to do to the original MAX prop?

Thanks!
s.d.