Ages ago I used to use the old wavefront format, it seems this is still extant in AC10 - the OBJ export - where an export option switched AC's Z axis for Maya's Y (a Maya convention, I also switched this pref in Maya). The geometry was good, materials could be seen in the hypergraph, but everything was bound up in a single polymesh node. It appeared that all other elements were there, independently, and if one could somehow break that node, the export would be almost complete....
Let me know what you find, I haven't used Maya since v4.5...
Andy Thomson, M.Arch, OAA, MRAICDirector
Thomson Architecture, Inc.Instructor/Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science
AC26/iMacPro/MPB Silicon M2Pro