How do you properly format a Collada model for the 3D Warehouse?

[arw...@smcm.edu]

Hello,

I have a collection of models made in openflight. I used Open Scene
Graph to change them all to Collada 1.4.1. All models were dragged and
dropped into Google Earth, displaying properly. However, problems
ensue when I try to submit the model to the 3D warehouse. Apparently,
the model does not fit the Collada 1.4.1 schema. According to xmllint,
the model doesn't have a DTD. I've tried reformatting the model using
xmllint, and that doesn't solve anything. All I want is for this model
to make it into Google Earth. That is all. I posted the model online
for others to download and look at. It's in Collada(dae).
http://rapidshare.com/files/244289716/smp_schafer6.dae

[SketchUp Guide Allison]

Hi arwise,

Your .dae file actually xmllints clean on my system; however, it dumps
a few pages of errors out of the COLLADA coherency checker (http://
sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=178682). Some of them
are clearly because it's just a .dae file instead of the full .kmz (it
can't find the links to its images, which is not shocking as they're
not included). Others look more critical. The Google Earth client is
remarkably lax in its interpretation of COLLADA, and will render lots
of things that are malformed and/or incoherent, but the system for
getting models into the 3D layer is much more strict. You'll want to
dig through the coherency errors and fix them. Also, it looks like
you're using .rgb files for your images. They'll need to be in
either .jpg or .png format to work.

Good luck,

Allison

[arw...@smcm.edu]

Well. I've recieved some help with my model, but still, it doesn't
seem to fit the right schema. I have a question: can you submit a
collada model directly to the 3D warehouse, without textures? i.e. a
model.dae? Or would i have to somehow wrap it up in a kmz, complete
with textures and send it that way? How would I accomplish this?

-Adam

[SketchUp Guide Allison]

Hi arwise,

At the moment you'll have to package it up in a .kmz. This is just a
zipped file with the following file hierarchy:

doc.kml
models/model.dae
images/texture0.jpg
images/texture1.jpg

and so forth.

The relative path to the images (inside the kmz file) needs to be
reflected in the dae. (They can't point to somewhere on your hard
drive, which is often what exporters will try to do. If you've got
image links in your .dae that start something like c:\path\to\some
\files\texture0.jpg, you'll want to move the links to a relative
path.)

The kml file format can be found here:
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlreference.html
but at a minimum, you'll need the kml header information and a
placemark with a model link and location (http://code.google.com/apis/
kml/documentation/kmlreference.html#model) pointing at the .dae file
and telling Google Earth where in the world the model should go. You
can download one of the other KMZ files in the 3DWH and unzip it to
see an example doc.kml.

Once you've got all that together, zip it up, name the resulting file
MyFabulousModel.kmz or similar, and upload away!

-- Allison