Format Guide
The open XML scene format — cameras, lights, materials, animations, and scene hierarchy in one file.
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| Extension | .dae |
|---|---|
| Full name | Collada — COLLAborative Design Activity |
| Encoding | XML |
| Open standard | Yes — Khronos Group |
| Supports color | Yes — materials and textures |
| Supports animations | Yes — skeletal and morph |
| Supports physics | Yes — rigid body and constraints |
| Supports assemblies | Yes — scene hierarchy |
Collada (COLLAborative Design Activity) is an XML-based 3D scene format developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and managed by the Khronos Group. The .dae extension stands for Digital Asset Exchange. Collada stores complete scene descriptions: mesh geometry, materials, textures, lights, cameras, animation curves, skeletal rigs, physics objects, and kinematics. It is human-readable XML, making it useful for scripted processing. While glTF has largely superseded Collada for real-time applications, DAE remains in 3D printing (Cura accepts DAE), robotic simulation (ROS/Gazebo), and SketchUp/Google Earth workflows.
Ultimaker Cura accepts DAE files directly, making Collada a useful format for exporting colored multi-material models from Blender or Cinema 4D to the slicer.
ROS (Robot Operating System) URDF files reference DAE meshes for visual and collision geometry. Gazebo and RViz load robot models as Collada files.
SketchUp exports and imports DAE files for exchange with Google Earth, CityEngine, and other geo-visualization tools that require georeferenced 3D models.
Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D, SketchUp, Unity, Unreal Engine, Cura, ROS/Gazebo, MeshLab, and 3D CAD Converter.
Commonly converted to glTF/GLB (glTF is Collada's modern replacement), to OBJ for renderers, or to STL for 3D printing.
3D CAD Converter imports COLLADA .dae files and exports the scene geometry to 15+ formats. Convert one model in seconds or batch an entire folder.
Add your DAE files
Drag and drop .dae files, or point the app at a folder of COLLADA exports from SketchUp or Blender.
Pick an output format
Choose OBJ for renderers, glTF or GLB for the web and game engines, or STL for 3D printing. Set units and tessellation quality if you need to.
Click Convert
The scene geometry is read and written out in your chosen format. Batch mode processes every file in the folder with progress and an ETA.
Prefer the command line? The same conversions run from the CLI:
Both import and export of DAE are supported, so you can also write COLLADA from STEP, OBJ, glTF and other formats when a legacy pipeline still needs it.
COLLADA (.dae) was designed as a vendor-neutral interchange format: a single XML file that could carry geometry, materials and scene hierarchy between very different 3D tools. For years it was the bridge format for SketchUp, Google Earth and many older game and simulation pipelines, and a lot of existing model libraries are still distributed as .dae.
Today glTF has largely taken over that interchange role, so the practical move with a DAE file is usually to convert it. Convert to OBJ when you need a simple, universally supported mesh for a renderer, or convert to glTF or GLB to bring an old COLLADA asset into a modern web viewer or game engine. 3D CAD Converter concentrates on getting the geometry and scene structure across reliably.
Because COLLADA stores everything as plain XML, .dae files are verbose and can be much larger than a binary equivalent. Converting to GLB or OBJ produces a far more compact file for the same geometry, which is easier to load and share.
Different applications write COLLADA slightly differently, so a .dae that opens cleanly in one tool may import with wrong axes or scale in another. Convert through 3D CAD Converter and set units explicitly to get predictable, consistent output.
The Khronos Group now positions glTF as the successor to COLLADA, and newer tools favour it. If your DAE asset needs to live in a modern pipeline, converting it to glTF or GLB keeps it usable for the long term.
A .dae file is a COLLADA file, an open XML-based 3D interchange format maintained by the Khronos Group. It stores scene geometry, materials, textures and hierarchy as readable XML, which made it a common exchange format between SketchUp, older game pipelines and many 3D applications. The extension stands for Digital Asset Exchange.
You do not need Blender to use a DAE file. Because COLLADA is plain XML you can inspect it in a text editor, but to view or re-use the model you convert it to a more practical format. 3D CAD Converter opens .dae files directly and exports the geometry to OBJ, glTF, GLB or STL for use in a renderer, game engine or 3D printer.
Drop the .dae file into 3D CAD Converter, choose OBJ and click Convert, or run cadconvert convert -i model.dae -o model.obj from the command line. OBJ is widely supported by renderers and 3D tools, and a whole folder of COLLADA files can be converted with cadconvert batch -i ./in -o ./out -f dae -r.
Yes. 3D CAD Converter offers a free trial that imports COLLADA .dae files and exports the scene geometry to OBJ, glTF, GLB, STL and 15+ other formats, including batch folders, with control over units and tessellation. No credit card is required to try it on Windows 10 or 11.