Format guide
DAE
COLLADA (Collaborative Design Activity)
DAE is the file extension of COLLADA, the XML-based 3D asset exchange schema Sony and the Khronos Group standardized in the mid-2000s (ISO/PAS 17506). It stores scenes, geometry, materials, physics, and animation as human-readable XML. COLLADA was the neutral interchange format of its era, used by Google Earth and SketchUp models and early game pipelines, before glTF took over that role. A great deal of legacy content still ships as .dae, which is why every major DCC tool keeps an importer.
How to open a DAE file
Blender (File > Import > Collada), SketchUp, Cinema 4D, and MeshLab open DAE directly. macOS Preview and Xcode render .dae natively (SceneKit's editor format). Because it is XML, any text editor shows the structure.
Primary use
Legacy 3D scene and model exchange, especially SketchUp/Google Earth era content.
Convert DAE to other formats
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