File Exporting Question.

[WildWestDesigns]

I thought I would ask here, more for my own edification then anything else.

One of my digitizing clients got a .dat file as a supposed vector file. Now, none of the usual graphics programs was able to open it, however, I noticed when I just previewed the file in nautilus (Fedora's version of Windows Explorer) and lo and behold I was able to open and view the file and it was graphics file. I just took a screenshot of that for digitizing.

My question is this: Does any niche sign making software exporting a .dat file when exporting to otehr vector formats such as EPS, CDR etc?

For instance, when I export a specific stitch file type in my digitizing software, it also exports a file that is really just a thumbnail preview picture file (but not the same as a jpg, png etc).

I was just wondering if this .dat file was the same thing just from a sign specific (other other, if anyone knows of any others) software.

Thanks.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

a .dat file is just a data file or file that a program didn't specifically give an extension to. So it could be .jpg .eps .pdf etc. It just doesn't have an extension so windows gives it a .dat file extension. The file still holds all the original data though. So you could change untitled.eps to untitled.dat and if you double click it will ask you to choose a program to open it. But if you go to say flexi and open it through flexi the file will still open as normal. The best thing would be to try a series of standard extensions and see if your drawing program will open it.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

a .dat file is just a data file or file that a program didn't specifically give an extension to. So it could be .jpg .eps .pdf etc. It just doesn't have an extension so windows gives it a .dat file extension. The file still holds all the original data though. So you could change untitled.eps to untitled.dat and if you double click it will ask you to choose a program to open it. But if you go to say flexi and open it through flexi the file will still open as normal. The best thing would be to try a series of standard extensions and see if your drawing program will open it.

I had tried giving an EPS file extension, but Adobe wouldn't read it. Either said that it was corrupted or created in a newer version depending on rather I opened it directly or placed it within a new document.

Strange thing is though, the Fedora viewers did (evince document viewer) without having to change the extension. So I'm still able to do what I needed to do.

 

[klmiller611]

It might be damaged, or it might be the newer version of the software as it said. I'd try to open it in Acrobat and then you can export it out as an eps or postscript, then you might be able to use the vector art.

Best
Ken Miller

 

[Fred Weiss]

.DAT files used to happen regularly when an Illustrator file created on a Mac would be copied to a Windows system. Two files with the same name would appear. The .DAT file would contain all the information from Illustrator and the second one was information about the Macintosh desktop. The first step I've found helpful in dealing with an unknown file type is to open it in a word processor. If it's an Illustrator file, the contents are in plain English. If it's a raster image, the contents will be in machine code.

Here's the first few lines of an .EPS file:

PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%Creator: Adobe Illustrator(TM) 3.2
%%AI8_CreatorVersion: 12.0.1
%%For: (Frederick S. Weiss) (Allied Computer Graphics, Inc.)
%%Title: (truckin.eps)
%%CreationDate: 4/3/2009 3:08 PM

 

[WildWestDesigns]

This is what I got opening it in LibreOffice Writer on the Linux side.

##��##%!PS-Adobe-3.1 EPSF-3.0
%ADO_DSC_Encoding: MacOS Roman
%%Title: St Vincent Logo.eps
%%Creator: Adobe Illustrator(R) 18.1
%%For: Sue Luehring
%%CreationDate: 4/7/15
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 406 151
%%HiResBoundingBox: 0 0 405.5724 150.1182
%%CropBox: 0 0 405.5724 150.1182
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%DocumentData: Clean7Bit
%ADOBeginClientInjection: DocumentHeader "AI11EPS"
%%AI8_CreatorVersion: 18.1.1
%AI9_PrintingDataBegin
%ADO_BuildNumber: Adobe Illustrator(R) 18.1.1 x446 R agm 4.7721 ct 5.3840
%ADO_ContainsXMP: MainFirst
%AI7_Thumbnail: 128 48 8
%%BeginData: 12666 Hex Bytes

 

[J Hill Designs]

This is what I got opening it in LibreOffice Writer on the Linux side.

##��##%!PS-Adobe-3.1 EPSF-3.0
%ADO_DSC_Encoding: MacOS Roman
%%Title: St Vincent Logo.eps
%%Creator: Adobe Illustrator(R) 18.1
%%For: Sue Luehring
%%CreationDate: 4/7/15
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 406 151
%%HiResBoundingBox: 0 0 405.5724 150.1182
%%CropBox: 0 0 405.5724 150.1182
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%DocumentData: Clean7Bit
%ADOBeginClientInjection: DocumentHeader "AI11EPS"
%%AI8_CreatorVersion: 18.1.1
%AI9_PrintingDataBegin
%ADO_BuildNumber: Adobe Illustrator(R) 18.1.1 x446 R agm 4.7721 ct 5.3840
%ADO_ContainsXMP: MainFirst
%AI7_Thumbnail: 128 48 8
%%BeginData: 12666 Hex Bytes

odd that changing it to .eps didn't work then

 

[WildWestDesigns]

odd that changing it to .eps didn't work then

It said it was a newer version if I flat out opened it and it didn't have PDF compatibility (although file size would say otherwise, unless it was really a raster file saved as an EPS and those raster effects were inflating the size).

If I tried the place option, it says corrupted.