Newbie Questions

Hi everyone,

I’ve got a couple questions:

  1. I’ve grabbed the sample .dae files from this website and from 3D Warehouse. Are there more Collada files around somewhere? I’m hoping to find some more complete test files. It seems the software developers are ahead of the users on this format. :slight_smile:

  2. If I am importing a Collada file, and there are entities that my software doesn’t support (like IK skeletons), am I supposed to hold that data and put it into a Collada file at export? The docs seem to suggest this, but I’ve never heard of that done before. If this is the case, what happens if I import the geometry attached to an IK skeleton, and that geometry gets altered by the user? Won’t that mess up the way in which the skeleton is bound to the geometry?

  3. Will other types of geometry get added to Collada at some point? Like Nurbs, SubD’s, etc?

Thank you!
John Pollard

  1. I agree, it’d be better if we had more samples. Most of the people using Collada aren’t in a position to share their models, since usually the data belongs to their employer. This was the case for me at my last company, where we had 100s of Collada models converted from our old format. I would’ve needed to ask special permission to put them up on Owl, and I was too lazy for that.

Your best bet for getting sample data is (a) the Owl model bank, (b) Google 3D Warehouse, and (c) make them yourself in your DCC tool of choice.

  1. If you have a DCC tool that can round trip Collada models, ideally you’ll preserve as much data as possible, even the data that your app doesn’t understand, including <extra> data. How well you can do this depends on how flexible your app’s internal architecture is. Some apps will be better at it than others. In general the guideline is that you should preserve as much as you can.

If this is the case, what happens if I import the geometry attached to an IK skeleton, and that geometry gets altered by the user? Won’t that mess up the way in which the skeleton is bound to the geometry?
Sure, the data will become out-of-sync then. That’s a problem and there’s no way to easily solve it, but just throwing the data out isn’t a good solution either. In general you should just preserve as much as you can. It’s not perfect and sometimes things’ll get screwed up, but it’s the best we can do.

  1. Nurbs and subdivision surfaces have been discussed in the past. Some people want them in Collada, for obvious reasons. If you join Khronos you can become involved and help bring these features to Collada.

Steve

Thanks, Steve!