Problems understanding how Maya works with Collada .dae

[Nytro Stovall]

Alright, so after reading the wiki and this forum, as well as youtube and google, I've got several different versions of exporters and importers, converters and plugins, and it's getting hectic and annoying.

Using Maya 2011 Hotfix 3, i have theFBX 2012 plugin as well as openCollada, and the DAE_FBX plugin. It appears that I can export files made in Maya as FBX just fine and re-open them just fine. I cannot, however, export them as .DAE and get them re-open successfully. If I try to open any .DAE file, it gives an error "Error reading file." If I try using the standalone converter from autodesk, I can convert the .DAE (i downloaded the simplebot.dae from the wiki to test it) into an FBX, but when i open the FBX, there are no joints or other data other than the mesh itself, as one combined polygon object.

Any clear instructions and links would be greatly appreciated. Is the difference between the 2012 FBX plugin and the 2011.3 that much of a deal that I wouldnt be able to open DAE at all? but I can export them just fine. I'm an expert in Maya, but not with these things.(file types, SL, conversion)

[Aya Pelous]

if you export from fbx collada 2012 then go to upload into second life do you get get a mangeled version of your mesh object when you tick the weight box?