I finally got my hands on 3D studio max for the specific purpose of exporting .zym files.
Can anybody (like morphed) give me a quick step by step in getting a 3D model into a working .zym file?
As a test I have some old gun models i did and 1 rigged female model i downloaded to export .

http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.htm
hl2 smd exporter and importer plugin

rig model to bones using skin or physique and export as reference
if you plan on doing animation export them as skeletal animation (this dont need rig or mesh just bones iirc but rigged mesh wont brake it)

download nexuiz model soruces http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=422119

check config-zym.txt to see how its done

if you want to export player model and use nexuizs animations
import mesh.smd to 3dsmax
merge it with your model
rig it to bones from imported mesh.smd
apply bitmap diffuse texture to your uvmapped model (darkplaces will take texture name from this step )
export as reference and overwrite old mesh.smd
run compile-zym.bat and test model ingame (most easy way is to overwrite existing player model and use "chase_active 1" command )

There isn't a smd ex/importer for 3dsMax 9, is there?

edit- found an exporter. Don't know if it works yet though.

http://www.wunderboy.org/links.php

Importer?