anybody know what type of file this is?

beolight

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

a google on DAT files and a suggestion on the archiseek forum mentions it may be down to the architect using microsoft outlook as his default email program I kinda GOT LOST AFTER THAT:rolleyes:

"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."

sounds okay but not much use if i cant get hold of architect for another 2 weeks

_________________

any help/advise most appreciated

feylya

.dat is just a data extension. The only easy way to find out what file it is is to contact the architect. You could try and use something like AutoCad to see if it could import it. Or open the file in a text reader and see if you can recognise any names at the start of the file.

Sam Vimes

.dat can be anything really. email him and ask him

KdjaCL

Dat is an infomation file it can be used and opened by various programs as you mention drawings it could be Autocad or other graphic drawing program.

Sorry to be vague but DAT is a widely used file and can be opened only by the program that created it ie a Video Cd uses DAT but Autocad cant open one of those DAT files


So i would guess Autocad.


kdjac

beolight

thanks for replies guys

following feylas post i used notepad to open it and got the following amongst all the goobly di dook

Documents and Settings\Raymond McCann\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2006\R16.2\enu\support

so i guess AutoCAD then

as architect is away on holidays i cant get him to resend it

secret_squirrel

A quick bit of googling suggests that your dat file is actually a pre-converted autocad file that a number of Cad progs will be able to read.

There might be something here

that can help.

yipperduigs

Alright Beolight,

that DAT file is an information file thats associated with your architect's autocad on his computer. There's no point in trying to open it because all it contains is what you saw in notepad. Basically, he's sent you the wrong file by mistake, so you'll need to ignore that DAT file and ask him to send you the correct file when he gets back from his holidays.

Yipper