As of Blender 5.0, native COLLADA (.dae) export support has been permanently removed from Blender's core codebase. This presents a major obstacle if your workflow relies on transferring clean 3D assets from Blender to CAD/DCC software like Trimble SketchUp or Autodesk 3ds Max.

The SketchUp DAE Exporter solves this limitation by integrating a custom-engineered Python-only COLLADA exporter directly inside the addon. It completely bypasses Blender's native exporter, delivering highly compliant .dae files with one-click optimizations.

1. Blender 5.0+ Ready: Works seamlessly on the newest Blender versions without needing any legacy C++ plugins or older Blender versions.
2. Safe Transforms Workflow: Automatically creates a temporary duplicate of your selected geometry, applies all scales, rotations, and locations to world-space, and exports the clean, optimized mesh. Your original scene objects remain 100% untouched.
3. N-gon Triangulation: Automatically triangulates polygons during export to ensure SketchUp and 3ds Max render the geometry perfectly without missing or broken faces.
4. Smart Texture & Material Export:
5. Automatically scans your materials' Principled BSDF shader node trees.
6. Copies any associated image texture files (including packed assets) directly to the destination folder next to the DAE file.
7. Writes clean relative file paths inside the DAE file so that SketchUp imports textures automatically.
8. Diffuse Color Fallback: If an object uses solid colors instead of textures, the exporter extracts the exact base RGBA color from the material's Principled BSDF node and includes it in the DAE export.

• A clean, modern, single-file lightweight Blender addon.
• Sidebar panel integration under the SketchUp tab for instant exports.
• File menu integration under File > Export > SketchUp DAE (.dae).

1. Select the Mesh Objects in your 3D Viewport that you want to export.
2. Open the Sidebar Panel (press N in the 3D Viewport) and click on the "SketchUp" tab.
3. Choose your destination directory and filename.
4. Click "Export Selection to DAE" (or go to File > Export > SketchUp DAE (.dae)).
5. Import the exported DAE file directly into SketchUp or 3ds Max—all geometry will be perfectly applied, and all textures/materials will load automatically!