Problem Importing into MED

I'm quite new at modelling. I'm using TrueSpace 6.6, exporting to X format, to import this bones animation into MED. I'm using a simple scenario for learning; 3 cylinders connected to bones to act like a finger. If I export without "Store object as a single mesh", claims that it importing each cylinder mesh, the materials and the bones, but only displays the base of the "finger". If I do select "Store object as a single mesh" in TS, then MED will import and display the 3 cylinders, but no bones/animation. I'm been experimenting for hours on this. Does anyone have a clue to what might be wrong? I just can't find a good set of documented rules to follow to get this simple thing to work, though the high level docs make it sound like it should just happen... imagine that : )

I tried an export from TrueSpace to X and was able to open animated model just fine in the DarkBasic Pro environment, so decided to try the import 1 more time into MED and it finally worked... after all the previous countless attempts! The only think that I know is different is I selected the last option in TrueSpace's X export settings, "Keyframe steps" and entered an accompanying frame count.

As a side note, TrueSpace is more robust for animation, but I really don't prefer MED or TrueSpace for mapping textures, so struggling with that in my mind.