Brad,
sorry for not answering before, but of course there is no point in replying if you don't have anything to add to the subject. However, today I had a crash in AC10 in a similar situation - creating a Quicktime VR object - your suggestion that changing compression was the culprit seems to fit. AC's internal bug reporter kicked in, so I've submitted too.
BTW I found exporting a .3DS to Sketchup was a much better solution to my current need - a 3D structure viewable by the client. (Google Sketchup is a free cross-platform viewer - but you must have SketchupPro to convert the file from 3DS). Just remember to compress/archive the Sketchup file before mailing it. The .skp format is very inefficient. Shrinks 6X with zipping.
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1