i did not know that it was such a big deal to have multiple surfaces per model, that's pretty much the way i work in wings3d, every closed "unit" has its own "material" that's going to be imported as surface in lw, so it's not really a restriction for me. but i can imagine what problems you are facing if you decide to make your object 1 surface only.

can anyone yet say a word about the collada exporter, esp. how it behaves towards animated and skinned models?