Continuing the discussion from 3ds imports without textures:
There are some issues happening with .3ds file imports and their textures. Click to see some of those unsolved topics
Imported 3dmodel from 3dsmax with unwraped uv not working in sketchup
"Could not create texture materials"
This guy below seems to have solved but didn’t share his experiences…
Trouble applying colors/textures to imports (.3DS, etc.) SOLVED
And when i was researching about it, i’ve realised “Importing and Exporting 3DS Files” page is missing at the Help Center. It is supposed to be in https://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000169 (as seen in below image) but it redirects me to here: Importing and Exporting Image Files | SketchUp Help which has nothing to do with .3ds files.
So, i think we need an article at Help Center demonstrating the import and export features of .3ds files (with even tips & tricks maybe).