At one time, I had a program that you could use to set the XYZ of an object file as you wanted it.
I may have even been the one that wrote the program I used.
Been so long I don't remember.
I just got use to the way objects are exported then import to Max that it's just automatic to me.
As an example of things I don't think about?
Doing work on SH3 objects, one needs to flip the TGA on a horizontal axis to show properly when UV mapping things in Max.
I can also fool S3D when importing objects with AO mapping that throws an error of wrong faces count. But I've been doing this for WAY TOO MANY years!
The Object file is just a text file. So one CAN do what they want provided you understand it!