DAE to PLY converter: the surface, as it is
Drop a .dae and get one .ply file, converted in Blender on our server. The trip keeps the geometry and nothing more; the skeleton and the skin weights, the shape keys and the materials and the textures cannot come along. Free, no account, nothing to install.
How do I convert DAE to PLY?
Drop the file on this page, wait while the server converts it, and download one .ply file.
- 1Choose a .dae, or a zip of the folder that holds it with its textures. Files up to 50 MB.
- 2The converter opens it in Blender on our server and writes PLY. Most files take under a minute; the page shows the result in 3D when it is done.
- 3Download one .ply file. The upload and the result are deleted 3 days later.
- In:
- .dae (or a zip with its textures)
- Out:
- one .ply file
- Keeps:
- the geometry
- Cost:
- free, no account
- The skeleton and the skin weights, the shape keys and the materials and the textures cannot be carried into PLY.
What survives the trip
A Collada file states its unit and its up axis and both are honoured. It names its images by path and does not contain them, so zip the .dae with its texture folder. A file that names an image by an absolute path, a web address, a path leading out of the folder, or that pulls in another Collada document, is refused: re-export it as one document with relative paths.
The result is a binary PLY with positions, normals, texture coordinates and, where the source carries a vertex-colour layer, colour per vertex. A model coloured by textures comes out without colour: images are not baked into vertices.
DAE and PLY do not hold the same things, and the page says so before you upload: the trip keeps the geometry and nothing more, and the skeleton and the skin weights, the shape keys and the materials and the textures cannot come along. PLY is what MeshLab, CloudCompare, Open3D and most research code read before anything else.
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.
Collada importers disagree with each other
The reader handles files written by Blender and by most current exporters. Files from older Maya and 3ds Max plug-ins, SketchUp or game rippers vary a great deal. Open the result in a viewer before relying on it.
Colour only where the source has vertex colours
PLY colours vertices, not surfaces. A model painted with textures, which is nearly every game character, arrives as geometry with normals and texture coordinates and no colour. Keep such a model as GLB if it has to look right.
Uploads stop at 50 MB
A larger file is refused before anything is uploaded. Decimate a dense mesh or shrink the textures in your 3D tool first; neither changes the format.
Frequently asked questions
Will the model keep its real size?
Yes. Unlike STL or PLY, a Collada file states its unit and its up axis, and both are applied: a model declared in centimetres and Y-up arrives at the right size and upright.
Why would I want a PLY of a textured model?
Geometry processing: measuring, remeshing, sampling points, computing distances. MeshLab, CloudCompare and Open3D read PLY before anything else, and for that work the colour does not matter.
Is anything uploaded, and for how long?
Yes: the file you drop goes to our server in New York, is converted there, and both the upload and the result are deleted 3 days after the conversion. Nothing is shared with anyone.
Can I look at the DAE first?
Yes, without uploading anything: the DAE viewer draws it in your browser. Open the DAE viewer →
Can this become a VTuber avatar?
Not from PLY: an avatar needs a skeleton, skin weights and a face that moves, and PLY has no room for them. Convert the rigged source to VRM instead.
The other format pairs
All 50 are free, all run the same pipeline, and all say what they drop.
PLY to GLB
PLY in, GLB out, free: one file.
PLY to FBX
PLY in, FBX out, free: one file.
PLY to OBJ
PLY in, OBJ out, free: zipped with its files.
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 files.
GLB to PLY
GLB in, PLY out, free: one file.
FBX to PLY
FBX in, PLY out, free: one file.
OBJ to PLY
OBJ in, PLY out, free: one file.
STL to PLY
STL in, PLY out, free: one file.
PLY to STL
PLY in, STL out, free: one file.
PLY to DAE
PLY in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
PLY to USDZ
PLY in, USDZ out, free: one file.
DAE to STL
DAE in, STL out, free: one file.
DAE to USDZ
DAE in, USDZ out, free: one file.
USDZ to PLY
USDZ in, PLY out, free: one file.
GLB to DAE
GLB in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
FBX to DAE
FBX in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
OBJ to DAE
OBJ in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
STL to DAE
STL in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
USDZ to DAE
USDZ in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
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?
Converting because the model is going into VTubing? PLY is not the format those apps read. The same rigged file becomes a VRM with its humanoid bones mapped and its materials converted, in one step on the FBX to VRM converter.
Open the VRM converter