Does blender import file types other than the regular .blend files? I have some models from 3D studio max that I want to import into .blend and I was wondering if there's a way I can export those into a file type that blender can import.

In the menù

FILE>IMPORT

you can set the import settings for vrml 2.0 from 3ds save.
It's all you need ??

i'm importing from formZ via vmrl 2 as separate files, when import the model is "mirrored" ... how can i avoid this (beside mirrorinf prior in formZ, which btw doesn't mirror "text" objects) ... any suggestion/hint greatly appreaciated ...

Sometimes importing 3ds max VRML to blender doesn't work properly - or maybe its the other way around - anyway, I do it using DXF - and if you've got multiple materials you need to detach the materials into separate objects (I think) and when you're exporting the dxf in 3ds max you need to make it save objects as separate layers.

Blender really, really needs solid, built-in support for the major formats, such as 3DS and OBJ. There's another thread here somewhere dealing with those issues.