maybe because the build script now jars the collada stuff separately? Or are you building from cvs?
I am building from cvs sources
Are you using the ant script to build from cvs though? I believe it now generates a separate collada jar that you'd need to include.
stupid me I should really check the create library after build 
yes a new jar is available and I did not add it to my jME library so the modelloader could not work
thanks for the quick answer
regards
Sue