Home > Supported File Formats > COLLADA to FBX

How to convert COLLADA (.dae) to FBX (FilmBox v5/v6/v7,.fbx)?

PolyTrans|CAD+DCC performs mathematically precise CAD, DCC/Animation, GIS and BIM 3D file conversions into all key downstream 3D packages and file formats. Okino software is used and trusted throughout the world by many tens of thousands of 3D professionals in mission & production critical environments, backed by respectable personal support directly from our core development team.

COLLADA

COLLADA (DAE) is a XML-based readable file format of the 2007/2008 era which had an original goal of allowing efficient cross conversion of 3D asset data between all of the major 3D DCC/Animation systems of that era. Many 3D software programs came to implement COLLADA but with varying levels of comformity and data reliability. COLLADA is more generally known as a polygonal mesh file format and not a MCAD/CAD/AEC/GIS format. Today people would usually use FBX over COLLADA, depending on the quality of the associated (and dated?) import/export converters.

Okino created one of the key implementations of the COLLADA file format in its import and export converters. However, it saw little need for them except for exporting into Cinema-4D from 2008 to 2012, as the primary gateway into Google Earth, and as our still-preferred method to move 3D assets into Blender (rather than FBX). COLLADA does have its place in these current and prior times.

Okino has a unique take on the COLLADA file format as Okino was at the very center of the DCC/Animation conversion world. In 2007 Rémi Arnaud and Mark Barnes argued that yet-another 3D file format was required and hence Sony funded their efforts to define COLLADA for the cross conversion of assets between (initially) 3ds Max and Maya. However, what they conveniently ignored was that Okino already had the defacto cross conversion system in place, for the prior decade, based on its BDF (binary data translation file format) for 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema-4D, Softimage, LightWave and others. In the mid 2000's there was a "not invented here" mindset and hence everyone wanted to stamp/force their own 3D file format on the industry: FBX (Autodesk), COLLADA (Sony), 3dxml (Dassault Systems), XAML-3D (Microsoft), U3D (Adobe and Intel), etc. There was little need or reason to have "yet-another" set of new 3D file formats. All, except FBX, would basically come and go as of 2007/2008. The implosion of the DCC/Animation industry of 2005-2007 and the 2008/2009 recession further hampered the long term adoption or need for COLLADA over Autodesk's FBX.

COLLADA is/was a very fine file format but it was really not needed at the time of its introduction in 2007. It only introduced yet-more confusion to the 3D graphics market as to which 3D file format to use to transfer 3D assets between packages. Developers generally implemented v1.4 of the COLLADA file specification then lost interest thereafter.

However, as a saving grace for COLLADA, all of the 3D software packages which had implemented a good COLLADA exporter became instant gateways to move their 3D assets into the then-new glTF file format of the mid 2010s, until such time that these same packages could add in their own glTF exporters.

FBX

FBX is a 3D 'digital asset interchange' file format that had been pushed on the 3D industry by Autodesk after they acquired it from the bankruptcy assets of its prior owners, Alias Research and Kaydara of Canada. FBX has its placed in the DCC/Animation world but it does have its limitations, given that it is a closed and proprietary file format of Autodesk.

Note: if you are one of the many people who use FBX to convert data out of Navisworks, Revit, AutoCAD or Inventor then please use DWF-3D file format and Okino's DWF-3D import converter instead. It is a night and day difference but little known except to our core Okino users. Likewise, use our native program support for 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema-4D rather than use FBX.

FBX supports all the common attributes of a DCC/Animation file format such as mesh geometry with vertex normals and vertex colors, non-solids NURBS ('old school NURBS'), lights, cameras, hierarchy, bones and mesh skinning (deformations), materials and textures. In basic terms, it is similar to the capabilities of the COLLADA and VRML2/X3D file formats, and to Okino's long standard BDF data translation file format.

Okino has a very long history associated with FBX as it created the very first and fully implemented set of FBX import and export converters in 2002, with full animation, skinning and trimmed NURBS support. This was long before anyone had much heard of FBX. And to this very day we are still the only company that actively ships and supports FBX v5 (Kaydara), v6 (Alias) and v7 (Autodesk). However, FBX was just one of many 'not invented here' file formats which came to glut the 3D market in the 2005-2007 era, many of which petered away over time.

A key reason for its early adoption, throughout the 3D industry, was the availability of a free and officially supported (but closed) FBX SDK from Autodesk.

The downsides of the FBX file format is that (1) it has stagnated in recent years, (2) it is based on a legacy material model and not on modern PBR, (3) it is based on legacy lighting models and not on physically based lighting, and (4) it is a closed file format which only Autodesk can update or change. Otherwise, these restrictions have made it easier for software developers to implement FBX just once and then not have to worry about costly yearly revisions.

COLLADA import converter's overview

FBX export converter's overview