Blender 3Ds Importer Addon Recoverd Vesion is a recovered add-on that brings .3ds files into Blender, rebuilt from work spanning Blender 2.79 through 3.0. It was made for Autodesk users who ran into trouble importing old .3ds files and who had built up 3ds libraries in the past. The add-on handles .3ds files only, not .max, and it works without Autodesk 3ds Max installed.
Importing is a single click. The process converts quads into tris but otherwise leaves the model topology unaffected. It imports 3ds files from 2008 to 2020 versions, since it was recovered specifically for older libraries. It can also load the newer 3ds format, though you may see errors such as exploded drawing and missing textures from dos mode; for better results with newer files, use models with applied transforms.
Distributed as a Blender add-on under the GPL license, it lists compatibility with Blender 2.9 through 3.3 and is marked Blender Extension compatible. Documentation is included, and a demo video is available.