Are my files uploaded to a server?

No. This conversion runs inside your browser using your own device’s processing power, and the file is not uploaded. Once a tool has been used once (video, text recognition and background removal download their engine from this site the first time), it keeps working when your connection drops.

My .dae converted to nothing. Why?

It probably holds no mesh — some Collada files contain only cameras, lights or scene nodes. The tool says so explicitly instead of giving you an empty file.

Do textures come across?

The material assignments do. Add the texture images alongside the .dae and they will be used; without them the surfaces come through plain.

Convert Collada (DAE) to OBJ

Runs on your device · Your file never leaves your device.

Collada files — .dae — come out of SketchUp, older Maya pipelines and a good deal of architectural software. Plenty of modern programs have stopped importing them. This converts one into an OBJ, which nothing has stopped importing.

The geometry and the material assignments come across. Collada is a sprawling format and a .dae can legitimately contain cameras, lights and scene structure as well as meshes; only the meshes have anywhere to go in an OBJ, a file holding only lines converts too, and if it holds no meshes and no lines at all you are told that rather than handed an empty result.

The conversion runs on your own machine, which for a 3D file is the whole point: a model is usually a client’s product, a scanned property or something not yet announced. Nothing is sent to a server, so there is nothing to delete afterwards and nothing to take anyone’s word for.

How to convert Collada (DAE) to OBJ

Drop the DAE file — and its companion files if it has any.
Check that OBJ is selected.
Press Convert.
Download the OBJ file.

Supported formats and limits

Input: DAE
Output: OBJ
Companion files: Texture images are used when you add them
Keeps animation: No — the format cannot store it
Where it runs: In your browser; the model is never uploaded

Not for: Writing Collada — .dae can be read here but not produced.

What the OBJ receives

Every mesh in the .dae is written at its place in the scene, with its normals and texture coordinates. Faces are written as triangles: four-sided and larger faces are split. A component that the .dae places ten times is written out ten times, because OBJ has no way to repeat a shape. Line elements, such as exported edges, become OBJ lines, and a file holding only lines converts too. Cameras and lights are dropped. Colours stored per vertex are written after each point's position.

Corners that sit in the same place are written once and shared, so in an editor the faces join up where they touch.

Materials and textures

When the .dae has colours or textures, the download is a zip holding the .obj, an .mtl file and the texture images you added, so the surfaces open as they were. Each material keeps its name, and a part that uses several materials gets a usemtl line for each of them. The .mtl holds each material's colour, shininess, emission and transparency, and names its images. An image the .dae names but you did not add is listed beside the download.

Units and the up direction

A Collada file states its unit, and SketchUp, for example, writes inches. The tool applies that unit, so the OBJ's numbers are always metres: a wall 100 inches tall is 2.54 in the OBJ. When a program asks which unit an OBJ is in, choose metres. A .dae saved with Z as up is turned so that Y is up, the direction most programs expect from an OBJ, and the model stands upright.

Models saved as .kmz

A .kmz file, as SketchUp and Google Earth save, is a zip holding a .dae and its images. Add it as it is: it is unpacked here, and the .dae inside is converted with its images.

Frequently asked questions

Are my files uploaded to a server?: No. This conversion runs inside your browser using your own device’s processing power, and the file is not uploaded. Once a tool has been used once (video, text recognition and background removal download their engine from this site the first time), it keeps working when your connection drops.
My .dae converted to nothing. Why?: It probably holds no mesh — some Collada files contain only cameras, lights or scene nodes. The tool says so explicitly instead of giving you an empty file.
Do textures come across?: The material assignments do. Add the texture images alongside the .dae and they will be used; without them the surfaces come through plain.