topic Re: what program was used to create this file in General discussions

what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 13:55:53 GMT

anybodyknow what type of file this is?

Hi all

My Architect attached planning drawings in email which i need to forward to a structural engineer however he cant open it

Architect attached file…..”planning dwgs.dat” has anyone any idea what program my Architect used to create it? He is away on holidays for 2 weeks so kinda stuck and i am keen to get my engineer started on the drawings for foundations and retaining walls as i have to get my neighbours consent on these as we are buildingup to boundary wall and i dont want this to stall things

any help/advise most appreciated

Re: what program was used to create this file

Dwight — Wed, 24 May 2006 23:49:06 GMT

.dat is an attachment format that many applications use.

All it says is that data is in the file.

Ask Leo:

http://ask-leo.com/whats_a_dat_file.html

Re: what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2006 06:58:00 GMT

thanks for reply

i presumed it was a CAD file as the drawings were CAD drawings

is there anyway of trying to open it in archiCAD

Re: what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:13:42 GMT

Most likely, this is an Outlook glitch. A long time problem with Outlook is that if the send is set to compose messages in RTF (Rich Text) format, other mail clients besides Outlook (and sometimes even Outlook) will get the message with a .dat file attached. There is really nothing you can do with the .dat file.

In order to "fix" this the sender will need to set Outlook to compose messages in plain text or HTML format.

Re: what program was used to create this file

Rakela Raul — Fri, 26 May 2006 10:51:43 GMT

did u try renaming the file?
****.dwg (and remove the (.dat) ?

Re: what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2006 11:45:33 GMT

If its the Outlook problem renaming the file won't work because the dat file inlcudes both the email message and any attachments (I think).

Just my experience.

Re: what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2006 15:47:19 GMT

thanks guys for your replies

i opened file using notepad and found the software was AutoCAD 2006 amongst all the goobly dook I dont think it is a drawing file though

is there any way of using of converting it to a file ArchiCad could open

Re: what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2006 18:07:35 GMT

beolight wrote:
is there any way of using of converting it to a file ArchiCad could open

Nope. He will need to resend it with Oultook set to compose with plain text or html as I mentioned below.

Re: what program was used to create this file

Anonymous — Mon, 29 May 2006 11:41:20 GMT

thanks to all

problem solved by changing file extension to dwgs

this opens it in AutoCAD and ArchiCAD was able to convert it

can i make changes/amendments to drawings now using ArchiCAD