When it come to exporting, how widly used is Collada

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1

I wanted to see how prevalent the Collada file format is when it come to exporting, so I looked at three model sellers to see how common it is.

  1. The 3D Studio

Typing ‘collada’ into the search engine gets four results. Also the dae. format is not listed among the available formats.

  1. TurboSquid

Browsing by the dae. category gets 1324 results. While impressive, the obj category on the other hand brings up 66343 results.

  1. Exchange 3D

Browsing by the dae. category gets 16 results.

Given the evidence, would I be correct in assuming that the Collada format isn’t widly used? Or is there something I’ve missed?

2

Looking through stock model websites is probably not a good way to way to conduct a survey like this.

If you are working with geometry+UV mapping only, as most stock models do, .obj is going to be the most widely compatible format. If you are working with animations, which most stock models do not, collada is the most widely compatible format.

Even models that do use animations are normally converted into several native formats to avoid Turbosquid’s rather liberal return policy should the customer have any trouble importing.

3

Thanks for the warning. What’s the best way to convert a rigged Blender file into say, a Max or Maya file that will preserve the rigging and vertex groups? Will a simple export work?