Since 1990, it has grown to become a de facto industry standard for transferring models between 3D programs or storing models for 3D resource catalogs. It was the native file format of the old Autodesk 3D Studio DOS, which was popular until its successor replaced it in April 1996.
3DS is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software.
