[Goober5000]

Is it possible?  And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

[peterv]

Export/import using 3ds format. Nothing to be used in freespace is in danger.

[Galemp]

3DS truncates texture names to 8.3, though, which sucks.

[Akalabeth Angel]

I dunno about Max, but I know in Maya if you open up the file in like notepad or whatever you can just go and change Maya 8.0 to Maya 7.0 instead and stuff like that. A lot of the file is binary except for those numbers which appear a bunch of times on the first line. But this might not be the case with 3DS max in which case this is no help at all.

[Nuke]

this is one of the reasons i hate professional software, they lock you into new versions (usually an expensive upgrade) by making file format version compatibility one way only. truespace is one of the few proggies i used that let you save in older versions of the format. i find it unsettling that a more expensive and better featured package like max would lack such a rudimentary feature.

.....and thats why i make autodesk walk the plank.

[Omniscaper]

If you export to wavefront's OBJ it retains long names smoothing groups and UVs. It sometimes triangulates tho.

[DaBrain]

Is it possible?  And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

Depends on what "important informations" are.
FBX would be first choice, but the version for MAX 6 won't import UV coordinates.
OBJ would be the second best choice. It's really only ment to save the model and mapping, but nothing else.
3ds ... I don't like it, but it does save some more stuff.


You might want to take a look at this. It could be the best way to get your model into max 6 wihout loosing anything.
However, I have yet to test the script myself, so I don't know how well it works, other than reading about it.
The interesting thing is, that it should even keep your modifier stack(!)
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/bff-2007

[ak-73]

Is it possible?  And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

If my gmax/3dsm io script is finished in a few days it will hopefully be possible to export and re-import across versions without any loss of data.

Alex

[Col. Fishguts]

Is it possible?  And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

What exactly do you want to do with it ? Post the .MAX file and I'll try it.

[Goober5000]

I'll PM you.

[chief1983]

Perhaps DAE could be used here?  Or is it not in Max 6?

[KewlToyZ]

Autodesk made a free FBX converter for download.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6839916

I didnt have a working trial of 3DS Max 2009 long enough to test it out and see how it converts to other model types.
Any experiences you guys have with it?