FBX to DAE converter: the skeleton and the skin weights kept
Drop an .fbx and get a zip with the .dae and its files, converted in Blender on our server. The trip keeps the skeleton and the skin weights, the shape keys and the materials and the textures; vertex colours cannot come along. Free, no account, nothing to install.
How do I convert FBX to DAE?
Drop the file on this page, wait while the server converts it, and download a zip with the .dae and its files.
- 1Choose an .fbx, 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 DAE. Most files take under a minute; the page shows the result in 3D when it is done.
- 3Download a zip with the .dae and its files. The upload and the result are deleted 3 days later.
- In:
- binary .fbx (or a zip with its textures)
- Out:
- a zip with the .dae and its files
- Keeps:
- the skeleton and the skin weights, the shape keys and the materials and the textures
- Cost:
- free, no account
- Vertex colours cannot be carried into DAE.
- The skeleton is written, the motion curves are not.
What survives the trip
Binary FBX 7.1 (2011) and newer is read by Blender on our server. Textures embedded in the file come along; textures named by path are looked for beside the file, so a model whose images live in a folder should be zipped with that folder.
The result is a zip with the .dae and the images its materials name: Collada 1.4.1, Z-up, one unit to the metre, triangulated, with the skeleton, the skin weights and the shape keys written. Only base-colour textures are written; normal and roughness maps have no place in the Collada writer.
FBX and DAE do not hold the same things, and the page says so before you upload: the trip keeps the skeleton and the skin weights, the shape keys and the materials and the textures, and vertex colours cannot come along. DAE is what SketchUp, Second Life and OpenSim uploads, and older engines and toolchains, still ask for.
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.
Binary FBX 7.1 and newer
ASCII FBX, the text dialect, is refused by most importers and by this one. FBX 6.x, the generation before 2011, cannot be read either. Re-export with the binary option from any 3D tool, or open it in Blender and save it again.
Shape keys make a very large file
Collada is XML, and every shape key is a complete second copy of its mesh in text. A model with many shape keys produces a .dae ten times the size of the source. If the destination ignores morph targets, as most old Collada importers do, FBX or GLB serves better.
Animation is not carried
The skeleton is written, the motion curves are not: reading a long clip costs more memory than the converter has, so the importer is asked to skip it. A file that arrives with a walk cycle leaves with the same rig in its bind pose. A motion you want on an avatar is the FBX to VRMA converter's job.
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
The textures are missing in the result. Why?
The source FBX named its images by a path on the machine it was made on, and those files were not in the upload. Zip the .fbx together with its texture folder and upload the zip; the converter binds the images by the names the materials ask for.
When is Collada still the right target?
When the program on the other end takes little else: SketchUp, Second Life and OpenSim mesh upload, older game engines, some robotics and simulation packages. For anything current, FBX or GLB is the better road.
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 FBX first?
Yes, without uploading anything: the FBX viewer draws it in your browser. Open the FBX viewer →
I need a VTubing avatar, not a plain model
Then DAE is a stop on the way: VSeeFace, Warudo and VNyan load .vrm. The FBX to VRM converter takes the same rigged file, maps its skeleton onto the VRM humanoid and carries the materials over. FBX to VRM converter →
The other format pairs
All 50 are free, all run the same pipeline, and all say what they drop.
FBX to GLB
FBX in, GLB out, free: one file.
FBX to OBJ
FBX 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 DAE
GLB in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
FBX to STL
FBX in, STL out, free: one file.
FBX to PLY
FBX in, PLY out, free: one file.
FBX to USDZ
FBX in, USDZ out, free: one file.
OBJ to DAE
OBJ in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
STL to DAE
STL in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
PLY to DAE
PLY in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
DAE to STL
DAE in, STL out, free: one file.
DAE to PLY
DAE in, PLY out, free: one file.
DAE to USDZ
DAE in, USDZ out, free: one file.
USDZ to DAE
USDZ in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
FBX to 3MF
FBX in, 3MF out, free: one file.
GLB to FBX
GLB in, FBX out, free: one file.
Blender (.blend) to FBX
Blender (.blend) in, FBX out, free: one file.
STL to FBX
STL in, FBX out, free: one file.
PLY to FBX
PLY in, FBX out, free: one file.
USDZ to FBX
USDZ in, FBX out, free: one file.
3MF to FBX
3MF in, FBX out, free: one file.
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? DAE 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