We're experiencing problems with loading even basic .max files saved out of Max 8 into Max 7. We get a missing dlls report, including one built-in class 'TrackSetList', and then another message box simply saying file loading failed. Has anyone else had these kinds of problems, and figured out some kind of workaround (e.g. do something in Max 8 before saving to ensure files can then be loaded in Max7)? We don't want to upgrade to Max 8 because we are going to see the same problem the other way around, i.e. we need to be able to save files that can be loaded by clients with Max7.

Few, if any, programs are outright backwards compatible. A .max file can't go from version 8 to version 7. Your best bet is to try exporting into .obj or .3ds.

use something like bff

Thank you. Looks interesting..
btw. another issue with going through 3ds, not listed there, is that it looks like this truncates object names