Extract text from DS files
To convert your DS file to another format, you need PASCO Capstone or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Scientific Experiment Data" file type, you need software like PASCO Capstone or a similar tool.
The .ds extension serves multiple distinct communities, most notably in scientific research and tabletop gaming. Its primary association is with PASCO DataStudio, a legacy software used for capturing physics and chemistry experiment data. These files contain sensor readings, graphs, and setup configurations. A significant downside for researchers is that DataStudio has been discontinued, making these files difficult to open on modern operating systems without the newer PASCO Capstone software. Users often need to convert these proprietary datasets into CSV or XLSX for analysis in Microsoft Excel or generic graphing tools.
In the gaming world, .ds files are project saves for Dungeon Scrawl or Dungeondraft, popular tools for creating battle maps. These files are not images themselves but strictly data instructions (often JSON or ZIP-compressed) telling the software how to render the map. Players frequently need to convert these project files into flattened raster images like PNG or JPG for use in Virtual Tabletop (VTT) platforms like Roll20 or Foundry VTT. Additionally, a .ds file found in your Windows/twain_32 folder is a TWAIN Data Source driver - a system executable that communicates with scanners and cameras; deleting or trying to convert this specific system file can break hardware functionality.
Convert.Guru analyzes your DS file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted DS_STORE, DS1, DS5, 3DS, MAP, DS$, DS6, TXT, DND, ZIP, NDS, JPG and DS2 files.
If you want to convert DS file to S, CIA, PDF, OBJ, FBX, DAE, 3DS, MAX, BLEND, MA, MB or C4D, you can use PASCO Capstone or similar software from the "Scientific Data Logging" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DWG, DAE, X3D, IGES, WRL, JT, SKP, 3DS, 3DM, OBJ, STEP or FBX files to DS, try PASCO Capstone or another comparable tool in the "Scientific Data Logging" category.
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 DS converter.