Hi project6,

After much experimentation with this same issue, I agree with PaQ that fbx is your best option, particularly if you do not require styles exported as materials (I believe not yet implemented in MoI's fbx exporter).

May I ask why you are applying mesh smooth in Max? My experience is that MoI exports to fbx with perfect smoothing and I have found Max to be one of just a few apps which imports MoI's meshes with smoothing (vertex normals) intact.