File-Conversion

If you have found a tutorial that includes a line like ogr2ogr -f GFT ... or links to http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_gft.html, the tutorial is dead. The GFT driver connected to Google Fusion Tables, which Google shut down on December 3, 2019. The gdal.org/ogr/drv_gft.html URL itself no longer resolves — the entire GDAL documentation was restructured and the GFT driver pages were not preserved. Links to it from GIS community sites still circulate and lead nowhere. ...

Safe Software’s partial acquisition by a private equity firm in early 2024 triggered price increases that blindsided teams that had built their GIS infrastructure around FME. Users in the community forums reported annual maintenance increases ranging from substantial to a 400% jump for some license tiers. The reaction was predictable: teams that could absorb the cost renewed; teams that couldn’t started auditing what FME was actually doing for them. What most found: the majority of their FME usage was format translation and straightforward transformation chains — work that GDAL, Python, and QGIS can handle without a license fee. The minority was complex branching pipelines and proprietary format readers that have no drop-in replacement. ...

GIS format conversions do not crash loudly when they fail. They produce an output file, report success, and leave you with data that is wrong in ways you may not notice until the analysis is already done. Field names get silently cut at 10 characters. Geometries disappear without warning. Coordinate systems shift without errors. Attribute types coerce to something that looks right but produces wrong numbers. These are not edge cases. They are the default behavior of the tools most GIS teams use daily — including GDAL/OGR, QGIS’s built-in export, and ArcGIS Pro’s geoprocessing toolbox. None warn you by default. ...

When SolidWorks shows you the Save As dialog, three STEP variants appear in the dropdown: AP203, AP214, and AP242. Most engineers pick one, never change it, and assume the output is correct. Sometimes it is. Sometimes half the data you expected to transfer isn’t in the file at all, and you find out when the supplier calls. This post explains what each version actually carries, what SolidWorks and Inventor write for each, and which one to choose based on what your recipient needs on the other end. ...

Someone emailed you a .slddrw file. Or you found one on a shared drive and need to know what it contains. This post answers the practical questions: what .slddrw actually is, how it differs from SolidWorks’ other file types, how to open it without a SolidWorks license, and what data you can and can’t extract from it. What is a .slddrw File? .slddrw is the file extension for SolidWorks Drawing files. These are 2D technical drawings — the dimensioned, annotated sheets that engineers produce from 3D SolidWorks models to communicate manufacturing requirements. ...

How to Convert SolidWorks to STEP — The Quick Answer and Why It’s Rarely Enough To convert SolidWorks to STEP format, open the part or assembly, go to File > Save As, choose STEP AP214 (or AP203/AP242) from the type dropdown, click Options to set version and geometry flags, then hit Save. This takes about thirty seconds for a single file. Got one file and some spare time? You’re done. ...

Switching CAD software platforms can feel overwhelming when you’re staring at thousands of files that need conversion. Whether your company is upgrading to newer software, consolidating platforms, or moving to cloud-based solutions, CAD file migration requires careful planning to avoid data loss and maintain design integrity. This guide walks you through every aspect of CAD software migration, from initial assessment to final validation. You’ll learn how to preserve critical design data, maintain file relationships, and establish efficient workflows that minimise disruption to your engineering projects. ...