Sorry in asking, newbie here and my first night using unreal. I can from 3dsmax, vray, maxwell, and a few other rendering engines. I have 3 questions.
1: Is .fbx the only format to export from 3ds? No .ojb? crashes when i try}
2: Why is it when I do export and import to unreal a FBX, its not placed properly where its modeled inside max. Example is my interior room, some walls and trims are being imported at different locations.
3: If there a good guide I can learn from?
If you experience crashes when exporting obj from max, then must be something wrong with your max.
Pivot of each SM need to be zero-ed when exporting, this is why you found transform is not right.
Heres a screen shot of what I mean. hmm… forum pic uploader is broken. Anyways… i exported only the scene in which is a apartment unit. but all the doors moved outside the building. and the windows polys are all upside down in other locations. i will try zero the piot. can you explain by zero the pivot?
1 - You should try the FBX export because even if the OBJ export works, you will be very limited when you’ll come to skeletal meshes and animation ^^.
And I don’t see what repelled you with FBX format ?
2: Why is it when I do export and import to unreal a FBX, its not placed properly where its modeled inside max. Example is my interior room, some walls and trims are being imported at different locations.
Models are automatically placed at 0,0,0. What you can do, if you need to keep it in the same location as in max, is export using TStools: TS_Tools first release: UE4 Mass FBX Exporter and More!
This tool is either way a must, in my opinion. Take some time to understand it. But when you use this, tick off the option “move each object to 0,0,0”. When you later drop your object into your unreal scene, just make sure to zero out all location transforms, and you have it in the same place as in max.
3: If there a good guide I can learn from?
Check the official UE4 youtube channel. Lots of good stuff there.
I do agree with JoGoiA. Just go .FBX though.
Honestly I have found OBJ to be very universal with all model. While FBX gie me errors. But i am getting used to fbx.
Thxs! Ill look into that tool! I figured out how to zero the pivot and now they are falling in place. Here is another head pounding issue… the lighting. Why am I getting this light bleed on all my room? I did set it to Production but cant find the resolution in which I read to increase. Here is a screenshot… And yes All my walls have no gap.
I even tried adding a shell modifier bu those light leaks are still there. Any advice is tremendously loved. 
Btw… complete noob. I registered in 2015 but couldnt figure out how to do a basic import. Giving it a try again since the arch viz are appealing and its what i do. But I am finding the learning curve rather steep. I still need to figure out the lighting issue with the leaks.
Concerning light leaks. Here’s a couple of things you can try out:
If you have some problems getting started, Joshua Kinney got some introduction courses over at pluralsight. You can find other courses there as well, but they do vary some in how good they are, and some things may have changed as the engine has been updated.
Btw, check the normals for ceiling and floor as well.
thxs Kurt… Ill look into all those suggestions! 
I will google “light mapping on UV channel 2” .
Go to the documentation
Kurt , what I am wondering is… are you supposed to do this 2n UV channel inside the 3d application or through Unreal? Thxs for the guide… I came across it and need to read it over and over to understand it. Also… where is that map everyone has on their videos of a blue guy running and you can drop your assets there to test. Id like to have the blue guy to experiment.
Ok… read read and read more. I got collision down. Got the weird pivot to zero thing down. Im working on figuring out the uv channel for light. if anyone has another tut to read on it, it would be great.
The blue guy: When you start a new project, select the “Third Person” template. Make sure you have “with starter content” as well.
For the second uv channel you create this inside your modeling package. If you are using max, you apply an unwrap modifer. Set the channel to 2, and click “abandoned”. Then you can just use a simple Mapping -> flatten mapping. Try a spacing variation between 0.01 and 0,007. That should get you started.
I have had pretty good results using the SteamRoller script in Max. Just select your object, change the UV Channel to 2 in the script UI, then run the script. It will flatten out all of your surfaces and create your UV unwrap for you. Just export that as FBX, and when you import it into Unreal, make sure to uncheck “Generate UV Light Maps” on the import dialog.
Awesome! Thxs a million!
Thos sounds interresting. Will look into it. Thxs!
Something I have been wondering since last night. Is it best to break up the room into its own walls? Look at my screen shot. Or is it good to leave it at 1 whole model? Currently the whole room walls are 1 polygon model. The ceiling and ground are seperate.
Best practice would be to break each wall face into it’s own mesh, this gives each wall an entire UVW space for lightmaps. All the left over parts of the walls you wont see can be joined together because the lightmaps won’t matter.