DFT to TXT Converter

DFT to TXT Conversion Explained

Converting a .DFT file to a .TXT file is a highly destructive data extraction process. A .DFT file is a proprietary 2D CAD drawing created by Siemens Solid Edge. It contains vector geometry, dimensions, title blocks, and Bill of Materials (BOM) tables. A .TXT file is plain text. When you convert .DFT to .TXT, you permanently discard all lines, shapes, views, and visual layouts. You only keep the raw text data.

People perform this conversion to extract metadata, part numbers, and manufacturing notes from CAD drawings. You gain complete system interoperability and text searchability. You lose the actual engineering drawing. This conversion is a bad idea if you need to view or print the drawing. It is strictly for feeding CAD data into text-based systems.

Typical Tasks and Users

This conversion serves specific data management workflows rather than design tasks. Common users include:

• Manufacturing Engineers: Extracting Bill of Materials (BOM) tables from .DFT files to import into an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
• CAD Administrators: Pulling title block data (author, date, material, part number) to populate a Product Data Management (PDM) database.
• Data Analysts: Running bulk text extraction on legacy CAD archives to make drawing notes searchable across a company network.

Software & Tool Support

Because .DFT is a proprietary format, direct extraction requires specialized tools or APIs.

• Siemens Solid Edge: The native software. Users can manually copy text or export BOM tables to text formats.
• Siemens Teamcenter: A PDM system that natively reads .DFT metadata and text properties for indexing.
• Solid Edge API: Developers use VBA, C#, or Python via COM interop to write custom scripts that iterate through .DFT text boxes and export them to .TXT.
• Text Editors: Once converted, .TXT files open in any basic editor like Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code.

Pros and Cons of the Conversion

Pros:

• Universal Compatibility: Every operating system, database, and programming language can read a .TXT file.
• Automation: Plain text is easy to parse with scripts for ERP or database ingestion.
• File Size: A .TXT file is tiny, often reducing a multi-megabyte CAD file to a few kilobytes.

Cons:

• Total Graphic Loss: All 2D geometry, lines, and visual context are permanently deleted.
• Loss of Context: A dimension value (e.g., "45.5 mm") extracted to text is useless without the drawing to show which edge it measures.
• Formatting Destruction: Tables and title blocks lose their grid structure. Text order in the output file often depends on the order the text was created in the CAD software, not logical reading order.

Conversion Difficulties & Why Convert.Guru

The main technical difficulty in converting .DFT to .TXT is the proprietary binary structure of Solid Edge files. You cannot simply rename the file extension or open it in a text editor; doing so reveals unreadable binary characters. Extracting the text requires parsing the OLE storage structure or utilizing the Solid Edge API to identify text callouts, dimensions, and tables while ignoring vector data. Furthermore, mapping a 2D visual layout into a linear 1D text file often results in scrambled text order.

Convert.Guru solves this by handling the complex parsing in the background. It accurately identifies text layers, BOM tables, and title block metadata within the .DFT file and extracts them into clean, structured plain text. This allows you to pull critical manufacturing data without needing an expensive local Solid Edge license or custom API scripts.

DFT vs. TXT: What is the better choice?

Which format should you choose?

Choose .DFT when you need to view, edit, print, or share an actual engineering drawing. The CAD format is mandatory for manufacturing and design work.

Choose .TXT only when you need to extract part numbers, BOMs, or drawing notes to feed into a database, ERP system, or search index.

Alternative: If you simply want to share a drawing with someone who does not have Solid Edge, do not use .TXT. Convert the .DFT to .PDF (for viewing) or .DXF (for editing in other CAD software) instead.

Conclusion

Converting .DFT to .TXT is a specialized data extraction task, not a visual document conversion. It makes sense only when you need to pull text metadata, such as Bill of Materials or title block notes, out of a Solid Edge drawing for use in databases or ERP systems. The biggest limitation to watch for is the complete loss of all CAD geometry and visual context. Convert.Guru provides a reliable, automated solution for this exact conversion, safely extracting your critical text data without requiring proprietary CAD software.