[Suneet]

Bitmap or *vector* images did you say? What kind of vector do you want to use, as most should be no problem. When you import vectors as .ai into MAX, they tend not to extrude well because they're all split up into segemts. You can remedy this with some vertex welding. Also, I know Flash MX and Freehand can trace bitmaps and save them as .ai for import into MAX.

Also, I don't think tracing bitmaps by hand is *that* bad. I like to set the initial type and drag type to corner, so everything is blocky when I first do the hand trace. Then I go through all of the verticies and turn them into beziers or bezier corners and move some handles around. Yes, for something big it might take a little while, but you'll get excellent results.

And then, you can also use a NURBS curve. Those aren't as unpredictable as beziers.