Hi Tony.

I have followed your instructions and imported the object into modo using default .obj export settings and can confirm that the column comes into modo as groups of polys(groups for outer edge, groups for flutes and one ngon each for top and bottom). If you wish to then make this one solid in modo you can just click on vertices tab, select all vertices and run the Merge tool. This will join all vertices existing in the same space(320 in my test) and leave you with a solid column(all polygons joined).

Regards
Malcolm