> We're getting to the point that we'd like to be able to import 3DSMax models (I'm doing this with someone else at school.) Is this the file type that would be best to have for importing? Would there be a better, more simple 3D file format that we could support instead? And how hard is it to import/read/draw all the triangles, etc. etc. once we have all the graphics functions in there from a 3DSMax file?

That's going to be very hard... :)

3dsmax is an object oriented program. The .max format is not a discriptive format as .3ds or .dxf is but it is a procedural format : It discribes what action needs to be performed to obtain te final result.
It is however not impossible however to get a list of all vertices, as there is a plugin modifier that allows to output an object to a data list on your HD.

look for the pointcache modifier on this page :http://www.johnburnett.com/web/plugins.html