I imported a pillar into Unity (obj format) that I modeled in 3DS Max. The pillar imported sideways. When I select it in the assets browser there is a section with translation and rotation, but it is grayed out. I know I can manually rotate the object after placing it. I don’t want to rotate the pillar every time I place it. I also make frequent changes to it. I don’t want to edit it sideways in Max.
Make it into a prefab. To do this, drag it into your scene, position it how you want, and then select the whole game object and drag it down into your assets (into a folder if you want). This will save that file information. When you update the model, it should automatically update the prefab model as well, but not change the rotation, etc. Instead of dragging the model into the scene for each time you want it, use the prefab that you made. This not only saves this information, but also enhances performance.