OBJ to DAE converter — for SketchUp and older tools
VTubeMe's OBJ to DAE converter writes your .obj, its .mtl and its textures as a Collada 1.4.1 file, zipped with the base-colour images — the form SketchUp and older pipelines import. Free, five conversions a day, up to 50 MB.
How do I convert an OBJ to DAE (Collada)?
Zip the .obj with its .mtl and textures, drop the zip on this page and download a zip holding the .dae.
- 1Zip the folder that holds the .obj, its .mtl and the images, and drop the .zip into the box above (a bare .obj converts without colour). Up to 50 MB; sign in when prompted.
- 2The folder is opened in Blender on our server and written with its Collada exporter: triangulated meshes, UVs, one material per .mtl entry, the base-colour image of each copied beside the .dae.
- 3Download the zip and keep the .dae and its images in one folder.
- Accepts:
- an .obj, or a .zip of the .obj with its .mtl and textures; up to 50 MB.
- Returns:
- a zip: one Collada 1.4.1 .dae (Z-up) and its base-colour textures.
- Costs:
- nothing, and no credits — an account, though: five conversions per account per rolling 24 hours, shared across all the free format pairs. Conversions that fail are not counted.
- Measured:
- 10 materials, 10,977 vertices and 16,867 triangles in, the same out, in a 2.96 MB folder with 8 base-colour images.
- Only base-colour textures are written; normal maps named in the .mtl are not.
- OBJ has no unit; the .dae declares metres and holds the same numbers.
- Verified by re-import in Blender only.
What actually happens to the file
Both formats are old, and each has programs that read one and not the other. SketchUp is the usual reason for this pair: it imports Collada, and its OBJ support depends on the edition and on plug-ins.
A static model crosses cleanly: 10 materials, 10,977 vertices and 16,867 triangles in, the same out. With no shape keys to write, the .dae stays small — the whole folder was 2.96 MB.
Collada has to declare a unit and OBJ has none, so the file says one unit is one metre and keeps the OBJ's numbers. If your OBJ was drawn in millimetres or inches, set the scale when you import the .dae.
What this conversion cannot do
Measured on real files, not assumed. Everything below is a property of the formats or of the pipeline, and knowing it beforehand is cheaper than discovering it in your 3D tool.
Base-colour textures only
The download is a zip: the .dae and the images its materials name, by relative path. On the sample avatar that was 8 of the 15 images — exactly the eight bound to a base colour. Normal maps, roughness and alpha maps are not written, because the Collada writer exports a material's diffuse texture and nothing else. The eight are written in their own format, a JPEG staying a JPEG.
The .dae says metres; your OBJ never said anything
OBJ carries no unit, and Collada requires one. The file is written as one unit to the metre with the OBJ's coordinates unchanged, and its Y-up is turned to Z-up. A program that honours Collada units will size the model as if the OBJ had been in metres — correct the scale on import if it was not.
Read back in Blender, and nowhere else
The result was re-imported with Blender's Collada reader: the counts above came back and the skinned mesh measured the same 1.7605 × 0.3017 × 1.8143 m. It was not opened in SketchUp, Second Life, OpenSim, Godot, Assimp-based tools or any older engine, and Collada is the format where importers disagree most. The file is Collada 1.4.1, Z-up, one unit to the metre, triangulated.
Uploads stop at 50 MB
This pair takes files up to 50 MB — half of what the GLB, FBX and OBJ pairs take among themselves, because dense scans and print files cost the converter far more memory per megabyte than a game character does. For scale: a binary STL of 50 MB is about a million triangles, and we converted one of 999,698. If your file is larger, decimate it first; MeshLab and Blender both do that without changing the format.
Five conversions a day, per account
This pair is free and takes no credits, but one account gets five conversions per rolling 24 hours across all the free format pairs together — the converter is one machine and this is what keeps it answering. Each slot frees itself 24 hours after it was used; nothing expires at midnight. Conversions that fail are not counted.
Frequently asked questions
Will the .dae import into SketchUp?
SketchUp imports Collada 1.4.1, which is what this writes, with textures referenced beside the file. We did not test the import ourselves.
Why is the download a zip?
Because a textured .dae is several files: the XML document and the images it names. Unpack the zip and keep them in one folder — the .dae finds its textures by relative path, so moving it alone gives you a grey model.
Do I have to zip the OBJ?
Only if you want colour. The .obj holds geometry, the .mtl holds the materials and the images sit beside them; uploaded alone, the .obj converts to a grey .dae.
Can I preview the .dae?
Yes — the DAE viewer opens it in your browser; drop the .dae together with its images. Open the DAE viewer →
The other format pairs
All 30 are free, all run the same pipeline, and all say what they drop.
OBJ to GLB
OBJ in, GLB out — free, one file.
DAE to GLB
DAE in, GLB out — free, one file.
DAE to FBX
DAE in, FBX out — free, one file.
DAE to OBJ
DAE in, OBJ out — free, zipped with its materials.
GLB to DAE
GLB in, DAE out — free, zipped with its textures.
FBX to DAE
FBX in, DAE out — free, zipped with its textures.
OBJ to STL
OBJ in, STL out — free, one file.
OBJ to PLY
OBJ in, PLY out — free, one file.
OBJ to USDZ
OBJ in, USDZ out — free, one file.
GLB to OBJ
GLB in, OBJ out — free, zipped with its materials.
FBX to OBJ
FBX in, OBJ out — free, zipped with its materials.
STL to OBJ
STL in, OBJ out — free, zipped with its materials.
PLY to OBJ
PLY in, OBJ out — free, zipped with its materials.
USDZ to OBJ
USDZ in, OBJ out — free, zipped with its materials.
Only want to look at the file? GLB viewer, FBX viewer and OBJ viewer all run on your own device — nothing is uploaded.
Is your model going into VTubing?
A scan, a print file or a CAD part is not an avatar, and no format change makes it one: a VTubing avatar needs a humanoid skeleton and a face that moves. If what you have is a rigged character in FBX or GLB, the VRM converter maps its bones onto the VRM humanoid and carries the materials over, ready for VSeeFace, Warudo and VNyan.
Open the VRM converter