> The problem with flipped faces originates from premade or converted models. Those freeware models are in general of very poor quality.
> Also, the conversion between 3ds and LW models often ends up wrong , because the difference "polygon concept". A straight conversion from LW (lightwave) will have all its faces flipped in 3ds....

ok thanks, this was another problem i was worried about and now i know it's not my fault. i wonder though whether the mis-positioned meshes is because i misunderstand the documents or because the documents are incomplete. i wonder if there are other amateur 3ds viewers that don't have this problem with the same models.