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Exporting from 3ds max

Collada .dae Exporter for 3ds Max

Though the Collada .dae format is is not as well supported for skeletal animations and a few other things, that may not necessarily affect your use of it, at least for many models.
However, when possible to use, OgreMax is suggested instead, as it is a more actively developed, tested and supported exporter and pipeline.  

If you go this route, you may want to install the latest version of the Autodesk FBX plug-in (which was last updated on Dec. 1, 2009, at the time of writing, though may be updated since then, and which is not included in 3ds Max 2010).
This package updates the exporters for Collada .dae, .3ds, AutoCAD .dxf and Wavefront .obj exporters, as well as the exporter for Autodesk .fbx.

You could then follow the Exporting to Collada .dae from 3ds max (using built-in exporter) Tutorial.

However, the most up-to-date documentation for installing and using this exporter can be found in the Autodesk FBX: Help for 3ds Max documentation, especially under the sections of it for Installing the 3ds Max FBX Plug-in and Exporting.
 

Alternative: Installing OgreMax Exporter
  1. First, please ensure you have have the latest version of the OgreMax for 3ds Max downloaded, and extracted (eg. using 7-zip).
    1. At the time of writing, the latest version was released on February 5th, 2010, though a newer version may be available.
  2. Please download and run the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer to install the required versions of DirectX (there dozens of different builds of DirectX 9).
  3. If you have the 32-bit edition of 3ds Max
    1. Then, install 2005 SP1 x86  version of the Visual C++ Redistributable Package (which is not necessarily installed with Visual Studio)
    2. Also, if you have 3ds Max 2010 or newer, then also install 2008 SP1 x86 version.
    3. Then, after installing those, run the OgreMaxSceneExporterInstaller-Win32.exe installer (from the folder extracted from the OgreMax download).
  4. If you have the 64-bit edition of 3ds Max
    (Note: you may have 32-bit version of 3ds Max installed even if you have a 64-bit CPU or edition of Windows).
    1. Then, install 2005 SP1 x64  version of the Visual C++ Redistributable Package (which are not necessarily installed with Visual Studio)
    2. Also, if you have 3ds Max 2010 or newer, then also install the 2008 SP1 x64 version.
    3. Then, after installing those, run the OgreMaxSceneExporterInstaller-x64.exe installer (from the folder extracted from the OgreMax download).
  5. Please select Ogre 1.6.x from the drop-down, and check all options under "Other Files to Install"
    1. If the option for your version of 3ds Max to install for is grayed out, so that you cannot check it.
      1. Then try selecting Ogre 1.7.x instead from the drop-down.
      2. If its still grayed out, you may not have the right version of dependencies, or not be running the right version of the installer.

The above steps include a corrected and clarified version of the steps described in the OgreMax for 3ds Max Installation guide.  However, you can reference that guide, as well as the OgreMax Forums, for additional assistance or troubleshooting with installation.


Exporting Models (.mesh) and Scenes (.scene) from 3ds Max

You can refer to our Exporting from 3ds max 2009 to Visual3D via OgreMax Exporter (Video Tutorial), though this may be slightly outdated in some cases.

For the most up-to-date documentation on using the latest version of the OgreMax exporter, refer to the OgreMax for 3ds Max Documentation.

Some pages of this documentation for common uses of the exporter, include:

Other Formats Supported and Import/Export Tips

Please refer to the Formats Imported by Visual3D and Import, Export and Setup Tips for Visual3D sections of the Asset Creation user manual for more information on exporting, comparison of formats supported (including additional formats not mentioned on this page), and workflow for editing those assets in Visual3D once they have been imported (or reimported, via our Live Asset Updating support) into Visual3D.

 

Older Exporters to Avoid

There is also an alternative exporter, OpenCollada for 3ds Max, however this is less actively maintained, documented and supporting then Autodesk's own exporter, and is not suggested. The ColladaMax exporter hosted on SourceForge.net, is another Collada .exporter, however it is many years out-of-date and shouldn't be used.