i´ll try making it short in this first post:

this is a insight of me about the ASE (3dsmax ASCI Export) format. Hopefully everthing important is within the image:



here is a little tutorial how to get your 3d-models out of 3dsmax into a ASE file suitable for flash:



just to make sure here is the sample file again as actual text:
Code:
*3DSMAX_ASCIIEXPORT	200
*COMMENT "AsciiExport Version  2.00 - Sun Feb 11 01:16:37 2007"
*SCENE {
	*SCENE_FILENAME ""
	*SCENE_FIRSTFRAME 0
	*SCENE_LASTFRAME 100
	*SCENE_FRAMESPEED 30
	*SCENE_TICKSPERFRAME 160
	*SCENE_BACKGROUND_STATIC 0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
	*SCENE_AMBIENT_STATIC 0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
}
*GEOMOBJECT {
	*NODE_NAME "Plane01"
	*NODE_TM {
		*NODE_NAME "Plane01"
		*INHERIT_POS 0 0 0
		*INHERIT_ROT 0 0 0
		*INHERIT_SCL 0 0 0
		*TM_ROW0 1.0000	0.0000	0.0000
		*TM_ROW1 0.0000	1.0000	0.0000
		*TM_ROW2 0.0000	0.0000	1.0000
		*TM_ROW3 -1.0840	1.0840	0.0000
		*TM_POS -1.0840	1.0840	0.0000
		*TM_ROTAXIS 0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
		*TM_ROTANGLE 0.0000
		*TM_SCALE 1.0000	1.0000	1.0000
		*TM_SCALEAXIS 0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
		*TM_SCALEAXISANG 0.0000
	}
	*MESH {
		*TIMEVALUE 0
		*MESH_NUMVERTEX 4
		*MESH_NUMFACES 2
		*MESH_VERTEX_LIST {
			*MESH_VERTEX    0	-33.0840	-30.9160	0.0000
			*MESH_VERTEX    1	30.9160	-30.9160	0.0000
			*MESH_VERTEX    2	-33.0840	33.0840	0.0000
			*MESH_VERTEX    3	30.9160	33.0840	0.0000
		}
		*MESH_FACE_LIST {
			*MESH_FACE    0:    A:    0 B:    1 C:    3 AB:    1 BC:    1 CA:    0	 *MESH_SMOOTHING 1 	*MESH_MTLID 0
			*MESH_FACE    1:    A:    3 B:    2 C:    0 AB:    1 BC:    1 CA:    0	 *MESH_SMOOTHING 1 	*MESH_MTLID 0
		}
		*MESH_NUMTVERTEX 4
		*MESH_TVERTLIST {
			*MESH_TVERT 0	0.0000	1.0000	0.0000
			*MESH_TVERT 1	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
			*MESH_TVERT 2	1.0000	1.0000	0.0000
			*MESH_TVERT 3	1.0000	0.0000	0.0000
		}
		*MESH_NUMTVFACES 2
		*MESH_TFACELIST {
			*MESH_TFACE 0	1	3	2
			*MESH_TFACE 1	2	0	1
		}
	}
	*PROP_MOTIONBLUR 0
	*PROP_CASTSHADOW 1
	*PROP_RECVSHADOW 1
}
some samples of what can be done with ASE files:

my personal current development,- an isometric game:

starting @ http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...9&postcount=41

papervision, opensource fast flash 3d engine
http://osflash.org/papervision3d

sandy, self claimed best 3d API
http://www.flashsandy.org/


hope that gives some newcommers some basic insight,- still here some interesting links I found during my discovery (no particular order):
http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2258
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/ASE_File_Format
http://www.solosnake.com/main/ase.htm (very good insight)