How do I import excel data

I'm new to 3ds max entirely but do have experience w/ excel VBA so I'm hoping it won't be too much trouble to use the macro recorder to learn how to code. However I have no idea how I read in points from an excel file. I'm looking to have blocks build like legos w/ a crane moving around and assembling them then taking those assemblies and dropping them into a larger one. Another department has all of the scheduling data and size for the blocks laid out in an excel file. There's over 2000 blocks I need to move around so trying to do this by hand would be a pain. I'd like to be able to read in the excel file and wind up w/ the blocks size/position follow suit.