I got 3ds max 2012 and the SMD plugin. I imported multiple TF2 characters , but they all had these spikes coming out of them which is connected to their rig or something. I heard about this bug but have no idea how to fix it since I ama newbie to this program.

I heard converting them to OBJ files should work, but I have no idea how to do that either.

Help appreciated!

(The "insert image" appears broken all the time so I am just posting the ilnk here; http://imgur.com/TU6Xv This is how my model looks like)

Those spikes are actually the bones. They've always been there when I imported them. I just assumed Valve points them outward to make them easier to select.

Oh really? So it's not gonna cause any problems when rendering anything? I remember seeing Maxofs2d with bone/spikes flying out of a rendered model but the movie is gone now tho so I can't link anything :S

You'll have to tell them to not render.

That looks like the importer fubar'ed the bone geometry, which shouldn't be too much of an issue as long as the pivots still work like they should. If you are not interested in working with the bones just delete them. If you plan to use them and don't want them to render, select them all, right click the viewport, choose "object properties" and uncheck "renderable".