COLLADA ( .dae ) was the exchange format of choice for SketchUp models, older Blender pipelines and many game tools. It is readable XML, which is nice, but web viewers and engines now expect glTF, and a DAE file brings a classic trap with it: it declares its own unit and "up" axis, and not every importer honours them. A model drawn in centimetres with Z up can arrive 100 times too big and lying on its back.

If you build 3D pages with three.js or <model-viewer> , you have probably met this: a client or an old project hands you a .dae , and you want a single .glb you can drop into the page. This walkthrough converts a static DAE to GLB in the browser, without opening Blender, and is honest about what the route keeps. My sample is wall-shelf.dae , a small wall shelf I wrote for this post: a 60 × 20 × 2 cm oak board on two steel brackets, saved in centimetres ( meter="0.01" ) with Z_UP , and two materials with plain colours.

What this route does

Applies units and axis for you.…