(I was hoping I wouldn't have to come in here and squish TS yet again to save a new modeller from it's horrors, but apparently I do so:
)
Wha? Blender currently still presents the best DAE -> POF conversion option of any 3d modelling app. I don't know where you heard that the script hangs blender, but it's garbage.
The Collada 1.4 DAE export script that comes with blender works just fine. Blender itself is far far FAR more powerful than all the versions of TS combined, and it's equally more stable. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone starting out modelling start with blender because there are so many tutorials for it on the net and because you won't be shooting yourself in the creative foot as you would by using TS.
I know both programs pretty well (up to TS6 anyway - but even diehard TS fans dislike TS7) and so could go on for hours about what blender can do that TS can't, or at least where TS makes simple operations far more difficult. Some examples of what TS can't do would be: the clunky UV editing with no automation of any kind, no auto UV unwrapping, clunky selection systems, no ability to join meshes without booleaning them, no ability to remove double verts without going through all the pairs one by one, no serious sculpting capabilities (crucial for organic shapes), no ambient occlusion rendering let alone baking, no particle system of any kind (crucial for most cutscenes at some point), crappy lens flare system etc.
Now that the collada support in PCS2 has progressed as nicely as it has, I've been able to ditch TS entirely - which makes me sooooo very happy.
