I have found that the Collada importer for Blender is more compatible than the FBX converter for loading .dae files. Blender is free, and there is a pretty good 3ds exporter script for it as well. This makes Blender a good tool to use for converting Google Sketchup (free version) models to .3ds.
How to use this method:
1) Download Blender from
http://www.blender.org/ and install it. Pay attention to what version of Python it recommends that you download.
2) Download the correct version of Python from
http://www.python.org/ and install it.
3) Download the COLLADA plug-in for Blender from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/colladablender/. Follow the included instructions for installing it.
4) Download export_3ds2kex.txt from
http://www.knifeedge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17674 (requires a free registration). Rename it to export_3ds2kex.py and copy it to the Blender scripts directory.
5) Follow my previous instructions for obtaining the .dae file.
6) Import the .dae file into Blender.
7) Export to .3ds.