Separating the object in meshes

[gabizilda]

I have a 2d object - more specifically a world map that I've downloaded from Google Sketchup. I noticed that COLLADA format comes divided by meshes (in this case, each mesh is a country of the world), and these mashes are also divided in many triangles...
My question is: can I put this 2d object (like when I "make billboard") into Alice separated by countries? I wanted to manipulate each country by mouse click, but first I have to have it in mashes...
I was trying to do something with meshlab (I saw the triangles and the mashes from there), but I'm not familiar with the program, so I don't know if I really can't separate the object there and import to Alice afterwards, or if it's because I didn't find how to do that in the program...
Any ideas?

[Mr Kidnapper]

You can't do this with Billboard. You have to separate the countries on a plane in a 3D CAD program or import the countries as separate billboards. A clean way to import the countries as billboards is to turn everything except the country in particular into alpha, and repeat with the rest of the map's countries.

[David B]

I have an idea of how you may be able to do just that, but I am not sure if it is even going to work, so I will experinent, and if it works, I will let you know.