Automating an Fbx Import (Animations)?

I have a custom model format which can only be exported from 3DS Max using a suite of tools. In order to get these models to successfully import into UE4, they need to be exported from 3DS Max in Fbx format, with all animations on a single timeline. The tools I use to do this are kind enough to generate a file which gives several lines of animation info in the following format: FrameStart, FrameEnd, AnimationName

So parsing these files are rather easy, and UE4’s Fbx Importer even has a couple of text fields where you can fill in the start and end frames for the animation you wish to import. But when each model has several animations each, and there are around 100+ models that I need to import, manually filling in these values becomes an instant nightmare.
So, being an experienced C++ developer, I thought “why not simply extend the functionality of this UI?”

After a few days of research and test code, I’ve found this to be easier said than done. In fact, UE4 doesn’t appear to play nicely with most of the standard Visual Studio features, such as Intellisense, and instead of the standard project settings, UE4 seems to use NMake and a set of external tools to do anything. On top of this, the code for the Fbx Importer UI doesn’t even appear to be made public, but it’s so hard to tell when VS complains about everything in a UE4 C++ project. Also, most C+±related stuff for UE4 still terribly lacks proper documentation.

SO BASICALLY

I’m just trying to figure out if there’s any way to extend functionality to the FBX importer without having to directly modify UE4’s source code? Possibly even as a plugin, which could be freely distributed to others? All I would need is to add a text field with a browse button so the user could select a plain text file written in the above format, then change the behavior of the importer to loop through the import process until all animations have been imported…

Or alternatively, a way to implement this same behavior externally in my own custom SCompoundWidget class.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, I’d be infinitely grateful!