Michael, I send you a file that has a problem when trying to export to obj or 3ds and the moi crash report. I just open it, increase the polygons a bit and then I get an error message telling me to mail the report (attached file).
1. When exporting to 3ds, the file has errors and can't be imported in MAX.
2. When exporting to obj, I get 57 unrecognized commands when importing to MAX and I loose some surfaces who can't be seen with "flip or unify normals" modifier.
3. I inserted obj file into Maxwell and it seems to work

Well, maybe the model is not the best possible but I think this is not the point here :))