The Arch Workbench supports importing 3DS files. The 3DS format is ancient but still widely used on the internet. It can contain mesh data and material information. At the moment, it will import mesh objects contained in the file as FreeCAD mesh objects, and has no support for materials yet.
User Documentation Arch File Formats
documentation index > [User Documentation](Category_User Documentation.md) > Arch > Arch 3DS