Thanks for the responses. Like I said I tend to fall back on SketchUp when I'm feeling very lazy so it's not a deal breaker, and to be honest I really should be just using 3DS Max all the time to gain as much experience as possible. There is no problem creating simple shapes and porting them over, it's only when I've delved about making plenty of alterations, in particular curved scenes, that I experience problems at the other end. It just so happens that I feel more comfortable creating more complex curved structures in SketchUp. My bad.
Paul, I use 3DS Max 2015 after I found out you can get a free version as a student. I did inherit a 2010 version but that started cutting up on screen leaving lumps of static graphics all over the place. Never did solve that problem either. I will follow your advice on one particular model that I'd love to port correctly.
James, I'm over at RSUG as well so no doubt I'll end up asking questions over there too