Because I use it just to load the mesh and convert to my own engine's internal format. But I maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Like so:
[pascal]
function TMVMeshImporter.ImportMesh(const FileName: String): TMeshObject;
var
fe: String;
m3ds: T3dsModel;
begin
fe := LowerCase(ExtractFileExt(FileName));
if fe = '.3ds' then
begin
m3ds := T3dsModel.Create(nil);
m3ds.MeshClass := TBaseMesh;
m3ds.MaterialClass := TGLMaterial;
m3ds.SkeletonClass := TGLSkeleton;
m3ds.LoadFromFile(FileName);
Result := ConvertMesh(m3ds);
if Result.Name = '' then
Result.Name := ExtractFileName(FileName);
end;
end;
[/pascal]