One of the hidden gems in the 3ds Max 2010 release is the ability to repath external file dependences that reside within a .max file, without even loading 3ds Max to do it! This was done as part of our XBR phase 1 work to create a more readable/writable file format. The goal for the 2010 release was to expose more data streams within the .max format so that you can more easily batch process scene files. No it is not a ASCII format but with a little programming knowledge you should be able to do some pretty powerful things and who knows maybe one of the many plugin developers might create something more basic for everyone to use.

If you are interested in learning more about this please see the recent blog post by Christopher Diggins.