Don't give up Victoria. I helped a friend out just last week with exporting out a tiny avatar and I know they use Maya 2012.
I will contact them and either ask them to reply to you in this thread or I will get the info of which plugin they are using and how they export it. 
(UPDATE: Ok I talked to my friend. She said she uses the DAE_FBX plugin that came with Maya 2012 but that she has only made avatar mesh with it that has just one texture. She has not tried to make static meshes with it or a mesh that has more than one texture.)
Wish I could give you more information. Best I can do is give you a link to Autodesk Converter and Plugin Archive:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteI
I know the newest converter makes DAE files with Collada 1.4.1. You may want to try Autodesk FBX Converter 2011.3 which converts FBX files you export out of Maya to DAE files with Collada 1.4.0 which is the original Collada format SL's mesh was designed to be used with so 1.4.0 may be more compatible and less problematic but I wouldn't know for sure.
I hope that helps.
StoneDwarf I don't know if this will work for you but try not adding a texture file to the Lamberts. I use Maya 8.0 and with DAE_FBX plugin I found in the past that this worked. Of course I have to upload all the textures separately and then rez the mesh and apply each one to the faces. I am even able to change the color and transparency level of the different Lamberts in Maya and they stay true when I upload the mesh to SL.
I hope this helps.
Its funny; I read an article on exporting files into DAE_FBX format, and the author said you simply make sure the Maya-to-Collada plug in was installed. I was shocked to find that Maya 2012 doesn't have a Maya-to-Collada plug in.
After a couple of weeks of trying to decide what should be done, I read a second article that explained something quite interesting ~ Maya 2012 automatically exports Collada files.
Go to File > Export Selection, and in the dialog box, select DAE_FBX format.
BrighterWorldAdvocate02 wrote:Its funny; I read an article on exporting files into DAE_FBX format, and the author said you simply make sure the Maya-to-Collada plug in was installed. I was shocked to find that Maya 2012 doesn't have a Maya-to-Collada plug in.
After a couple of weeks of trying to decide what should be done, I read a second article that explained something quite interesting ~ Maya 2012 automatically exports Collada files.
Go to File > Export Selection, and in the dialog box, select DAE_FBX format.
I think I might know what might be causing some of the confusion.
I don't have Maya 2012 so I don't know if the DAE_FBX plug-in is activated when you load Maya 2012. My guess is that it probably is not.
To activate the DAE_FBX plug-in click on the "Window" menu in Maya and then go down to "Settings/Preferences" and then click "Plug-in Manager". Once the Plug-in Manager opens scroll down and put a check marks in the "loaded" and "auto load" boxes next to "fbxmaya.mll". Now you should be able to see the DAE_FBX option in the files type of the export window.
There are many plug-ins that come with Maya but are not activated by default. OBJ export option is an example. My Maya 8.0 the OBJ export option was not activated when I loaded the program and I had to go into the plug-in manager and set it just as I described for the fbxmaya.mll plug-in.
I hope that helps.
Cathy
