Hehe, thx

I think there are 3ds importers available, just do a google search.
But is a exporter for sod files available for ms3d?
DOCa Cola
[EDIT] Maybe this is something for you too, discreet has made a 'lite' version of 3ds for game edititing called gmax
http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/ and the best thing: it's free

[/EDIT]