Dump File Interpretation

I'm starting this thread to try to help people interpret the Dump.dmp file if a MAX export fails.

For the first topic, I am exporting a player with no sequences (just trying to get the bones and mesh to export first) and Max crashes and my dump.dmp file's last entry is:

"Optimizing meshes..."

After it appears to have applied vertex/bones weights.

What's the exporter trying to do here, and how can I help it over the hump?

I DO have a large number of polygons, but the mesh exports just fine when I pump it out as a static object-- it's just when I rig it and skin it that I start having problems.

Thanks ahead of time.

Also, are there any other examples of a ".max" file besides the one in the file kit? I'm trying to not use the MultiRes mod, and I'd like to see how someone else set up the multiple meshes without multires.

As a note to the keepers of documentation-- in general, it's pretty thorough, but it REALLY needs more examples. A lot of general statements are made without a concrete example to back it up, especially in the Max export docs. An example goes a long way. And could someone make the diagrams for the schematic/hierarchy views for objects a higher resolution? If you zoom into the bitmaps for these diagrams, you can't read some of them.