When working with external 3D models, there are a number of issues that may occur when a model is imported and used within the Storyboard environment. If the model does not look correct while imported there are things that you can do both within Storyboard and within your 3D Design tools to troubleshoot:
Zero Out/Freeze/Reset transforms. On 3ds Max this is done using > and in Maya this is in the right click menu .
Set up a point for scene root. Attach geometry in proper hierarchy to that scene root, this allows a point to be referenced to move the whole model.
If your textures are not showing up then make sure that you set up a project folder for your 3D model file and when exporting the FBX make sure that you select the media encoded selection and finally ensure that the textures that you are using are in the same directory as the imported model within Storyboard Designer.
Different use cases call for different model co-ordinate systems. Use world coordinate system when using animations that have been pulled in from the FBX file. Alternatively use local coordinate system when placing the object dynamically through Lua or Storyboard variable manipulation.
In addition to the suggestions in the Storyboard optimization chapter, there are some specific 3D content related optimizations that can have both a visual and performance impacts.
Use an unlit shading model. Prebake lighting/ambient occlusion first to still have a nice lighting on the model without the runtime cost
Turn culling on. This will have the impact of drawing less content and will speed up overall rendering operations.
Use smaller texture maps and consolidate texture maps where possible. This will allow the rendering engine to use fewer resources and save on internal state transitions.