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In order to demonstrate my problem, I created a simple scene with a cube and I used Vertex Paint to color one corner.

Cube using Vertex Colors

When I export to COLLADA, I make sure that "Include Material Textures" is checked.

enter image description here

The vertex colors are not saved properly. I've verified this by importing the COLLADA file back into a new Blender file and also by importing it into MeshLab, Sketchup, Photoshop and 3DS Max, none of which showed colors.

I know the Stanford PLY format also supports vertex colors (and it worked well for this same cube), but the actual scene I'm dealing with has thousands of little complex objects and PLY can only export one object at a time. I could write a script to export each object, but I'd rather get into one file.

(using Blender 2.69, Linux 64-bit, any more info needed?)

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't think the blender COLLADA exporter supports vertex colors. You could try *.fbx, where vertex colors are supported. $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3 ♦
    Jan 10, 2014 at 1:13
  • $\begingroup$ But, I can't even check if my .fbx export was successful since Blender exports as ASCII .fbx and apparently can't import ASCII .fbx. Also, MeshLab doesn't import .fbx files. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Jan 10, 2014 at 3:37
  • $\begingroup$ Are they any alternative COLLADA export addons that you know of? I was looking at this one, but I think that may actually be bundled with Blender already, but I wasn't sure. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Jan 10, 2014 at 4:17
  • $\begingroup$ I don't know of any.. :/ You could try joining all your objects into one object and then using ply. $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3 ♦
    Jan 10, 2014 at 6:11
  • $\begingroup$ NICE! That worked! Do you want to summarize your comments into a proper answer so it can be upvoted and will be easier to see? $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Jan 10, 2014 at 7:23

2 Answers 2

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As far as I know, blender does not support exporting vertex colors to COLLADA (yet).

The only other formats that blender can export to (with the official export scripts, it would be perfectly possible to write your own exporter in python) which support vertex colors are ascii fbx and ply.

If fbx doesn't work for you, you could try joining all your objects into one object and then exporting to ply:

Select the objects which you want to join/export a press CtrlJ, then export as ply in Info panel > File > Export > Stanford (.ply).

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Hi vertex colors are exported using the collada exporter. You can check it by opening the .dae file in a browser and search for something mesh-colors-array enter image description here..( i have it as Suzanne-mesh-colors you will probably have it as Cube-mesh-colors) blender is currently not capable of importing back the vertex color but expect it in the next release.

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  • $\begingroup$ Interesting. I also realized that MeshLab doesn't import vertex colors from Collada so that would explain my confusion. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Jan 16, 2014 at 3:49
  • $\begingroup$ I also was able to see the color information in my Collada file, but I'm still skeptical it's working well since I've also opened the exported .dae file into Sketchup and I didn't see any colors. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Jan 16, 2014 at 4:22
  • $\begingroup$ I tried two more programs and it didn't work also! I'll add it to my original post. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Jan 19, 2014 at 9:40
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    $\begingroup$ The export is all good... If vertex colors are not shown in other 3D apps then it means that they do not support importing vertex color into their software. As for blender i have submitted a patch for importing vertex color's developer.blender.org/D92 see the pasteall link, colors are imported as they are expected to.. $\endgroup$
    – Magellan
    Jan 21, 2014 at 8:06
  • $\begingroup$ It seems like something still wrong with Collada vertex colors, either importing or exporting, in Blender 2.70 (test build). I export a cube with vertex colors, then import it back in and it no longer has the vertex colors... $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Mar 6, 2014 at 5:19

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