For export to Blender I like to have an option to export curves with Curve piping to a mesh.
The export option I normaly use is FBX / OBJ or DAE.
In these export format there are options available to convert nurbs and subd to mesh but there is no option available to convert curve piping to mesh.
Now I use use the ExtractPipedCurve comand to get the curves in the export.