Is it possible to open a 3DS max Model in blender? Or is there a program you can download to switch it to a file that works? Please help soon
file>>import>>.3ds :yes:
3DS Max, for some reason theres a difference, the models are called MAX.
sorry, should have done my 2 min. google homework
it turns out that .max, as well as .ma, are proprietary formats, and thus there are no blender import scripts for them.
try using a more universal format, like .3ds or .obj 
Don’t use 3ds. There is no published spec for it, so everybody’s implementation is different and that causes all kinds of problems.
use obj or collada
Short answer: no. It is a closed proprietary format that you cannot convert without a copy of 3ds Max, unfortunately. Even Polytrans, an ‘industry standard’ object converter needs an installed copy of Max to perform this conversion.
Your best bet is to ask someone who owns a copy of Max nicely to do the conversion for you. That, or download the trial version of Max and convert the models. And I concur with the others: do not use .3ds; too many problems with that format.
A good object converter is Accutrans - though not ‘free’ you can use it to convert 3d formats and control the method used.
http://www.micromouse.ca/
Excellent little converter that saved my ‘life’ a couple of times now, and definitely worth the paltry asking price.
for character animation, you could also export as md5 using certain *.md5 exporter in , probably , certain blender version if does not work in current (in many cases you’d be able to import the blend into newer ones later…)… there’s also a max importer. There exists an md5 importer for max. But the one (supporting bones, weights and animation, that is) that seems to be supported in official distributions is collada. I am not sure if the full set of features is supported, during a time, it was only bones , basic rig exported. Right now, I don’t know. OBJ only foces me to rebuild smoothing normals in Max, but not only with blender’s objs, but from any package into max. that could have been improved also…Since many versions, OBJ import is by default in max. No need to stick to *.3ds, has several problems. (ie, is a triangles based format, will break the mesh when 2 UVs are shared, can’t port smoothing normals info, etc)
Umm… sorry but I did not understand what you ment by all that, I;m a little stupid about this stuff though.
So… I’m guessing it is not possible to change 3DS MAX to a file that blender could use. Well thanks for the help blender folk, I’ll have to think of something else.
If you have max handy…
File - export - choose .obj format.
Then in blender
File - import - .obj
If you don’t have max handy… I have no clue
Ok, well thanks anyway 
I guess I’ll need to think of something else then.
Just install the 30 day 3DSMax trial, open your MAX files and export to one of the many file formats that Blender supports. OBJ, LWO, 3DS. They all work.
But I thought that those trial things did not allow export, I thought that only works in the real version.
You are right some of them do not allow export. Some just do not allow you to save your work in any format other then the native one of the program. And MOST of them time out after a certain time. That is my big problem. I am so busy that those 15 day or 30 day periods go by without notice.
The habware OBJ exporter for 3DSMax should work, it is freeware. It does not care if it is running under a 30 day trial.
http://www.maxplugins.de/max9_32.php?range=Import%20/%20Export&sort=Author
I’ve only found a good way to import Blender into 3ds Max, but that method does not work vice-versa.
I exported a .blend as an Autodesk FBX file, which does a good import to 3ds Max, but it won’t correctly import armatures.
plz give me the way to do that!!!
There u go
aslo plz I still need plybass06 or someone to help with hwo to actually import blender files into 3ds max