Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your CID file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert CID to another file type
To convert CID IED descriptions to another format, you need IEC 61850 SCL Editors or other Settings software.
Convert a file to CID
To convert other file formats to the "Substation Configuration File" file type, you need software like IEC 61850 SCL Editors or a similar tool.
About CID files
The .CID file extension primarily represents a Configured IED Description file. It is formatted in XML and defined by the IEC 61850 standard for electrical substation automation. These files store specific configuration parameters for an Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) before it is deployed on a power network. Engineers use them to map data objects and configure communication settings. You can open these files using standard text editors or specialized IEC 61850 System Configuration Language (SCL) editors. Beyond electrical engineering, a .CID file might be a PostScript CID-keyed font used by Adobe Illustrator, a disguised PNG email attachment in Hiworks, or a cached JPG from Picsart. Working with raw .CID files is frustrating. Because the primary version is highly specialized, opening it requires niche engineering software or forces you to parse complex XML data manually. The font and cache variations are proprietary or obscured, preventing operating systems from previewing them natively. Users often struggle to view the contents when collaborating outside specialized engineering teams. To make the data readable, you should convert .CID files to standard formats. For data analysis and sharing, convert to XML, TXT, or CSV. If the file is actually a cached image, converting it to JPG or PNG will restore visibility. Drop your file here to analyze and convert it securely right in your browser.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CID file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert CID file to CC, PDF, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, TIF, WEBP, ICO, CUR or PSD, you can use IEC 61850 SCL Editors or similar software from the "Configured IED Description" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert RAW, PNG, AI, NEF, PSB, DNG, SVG, GIF, EPS, JPG, ARW or PDF files to CID, try IEC 61850 SCL Editors or another comparable tool in the "Configured IED Description" category.
The CID Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CID converter.