DAE to GLB

DAE to GLB: moving COLLADA files to glTF

DAE is COLLADA, an XML interchange format from the mid-2000s. Khronos, the group behind COLLADA, later created glTF as its successor for delivering 3D to apps and the web. COLLADA is still everywhere in older pipelines: SketchUp exports it, Google Earth and 3D Warehouse used it, Second Life and OpenSimulator take it for mesh uploads, and plenty of robotics and simulation models ship as .dae.

Converting DAE to GLB gets those models into the format modern viewers, game engines and web libraries actually load. The converter reads the DAE in your browser, previews it, and writes a single GLB with the textures packed inside. Nothing is uploaded.

What the GLB keeps

COLLADA and glTF cover similar ground, so most of a DAE file comes through.

Meshes and scene hierarchy

Kept, with each node's transform.

Textures

Kept and embedded in the GLB, provided you drop the image files together with the .dae. A DAE only references its images by path; it never contains them.

Materials

Converted to glTF's metallic-roughness PBR. COLLADA's Phong, Blinn and Lambert shading have no exact match, so specular highlights and shininess are approximated.

Animation

Kept. The clips are written to the GLB. The converter's preview doesn't play them; open the file in the DAE Viewer to watch them.

Up axis

Handled. COLLADA files declare Y_UP or Z_UP in their header (SketchUp and many CAD exports are Z-up). Z-up files are turned upright when read, so the GLB, which is always Y-up, comes out standing.

Cameras, lights, physics, kinematics

Not written. The GLB holds the model itself.

How to convert DAE to GLB

1. Find the .dae and its texture images. SketchUp, for example, puts the textures in a folder with the same name as the model. Select the .dae and all the images and drop them onto the converter together.

2. Check the preview. Textures should be visible, and the info panel counts any animations.

3. Convert and download the .glb. One file, textures inside, ready for three.js, Babylon.js, <model-viewer> or a game engine.

To inspect a COLLADA file without converting it, open the DAE Viewer.

Problems people hit with DAE files

COLLADA's flexibility is also its weakness: every exporter wrote it a little differently.

Textures missing

The images weren't dropped with the .dae, or the DAE refers to them by an absolute path from the original computer. Drop the image files with the model; they're matched by file name.

Faces disappear from some angles

Common with SketchUp models, where faces are often reversed (the blue-gray back side facing out). SketchUp shows both sides; glTF viewers usually hide back faces. Fix it in SketchUp with Reverse Faces or Orient Faces, then export again.

Model is far too big or small

COLLADA declares a unit, and the converter applies it, so the GLB comes out in meters. If the exporting app wrote the wrong unit, the size will be off in the target. Correct the scale in the source app or in your scene.

Model sits far from the origin

SketchUp and CAD models are often placed at geographic or site coordinates. The GLB keeps that offset. Move the model to the origin in the source app before exporting.

Colors look washed out or too shiny

That's the Phong-to-PBR approximation. Adjust roughness and metalness in the target engine.

Why GLB rather than staying with DAE

A DAE is verbose XML, often several times larger than the same model in GLB, and it needs its textures kept beside it in the right folders. It's slow to parse and support for it is thinning: newer tools and web libraries put glTF first. GLB is binary, self-contained, and loads quickly. Keep the DAE as an archive if you like, but ship the GLB.

Coming from a game engine instead? See FBX to GLB.