I have 'adopted' the code from the Java 3D Collada Loader project in contrib-utils found here. After some cleaning and some bug fixes, a source code zip is attached to this post. Please note: jimi.jar from the JIMI project is required to compile and use (image processing).

The status of Java 3D

With the introduction of JavaFX, and the 'disengagement' of Sun from the Java3D project, one is led to believe that it's a dead API. However, things are more subtle than that...

1. The Java 3D API is mature

And it is the opinion of this writer that Java3D was not meant to be a 'cutting-edge' 3D technology--rather it is a good object-oriented, high-level wrapper around OpenGL (and optionally an adapter  to Windows D3D). To this end, the Java3D approach is well understood. Best of all, it just works.