Node hierarchy - Matrix element

Hi,

I am writing collada import to my graphics program. I don´t quite understand this:


<node id="F40-node" name="F40" type="NODE">
        <translate>0.570472 0.08565 2.40812</translate>
        <scale>0.001745 0.001745 0.001745</scale>
        <node id="F40-node_PIVOT" name="F40_PIVOT" type="NODE">
          <matrix>1 0 0 1578.14 0 1 0 -2218.86 0 0 1 -190.136 0 0 0 1</matrix>
          <instance_geometry url="#F40tire-mesh">

What exactly mean <matrix> ? Translate - scale are obvious…
And if I have Transformation Stack i perform operations which way ? Matrix - Scale - Translate OR Translate - Scale - Matrix ?

Thanks

The example results in a column-order matrix that equals [translate][scale][matrix]

The <matrix> element is (just) another transformation element that happens to be a full 4x4 column-order matrix.