Extract text from Deflectometer and HMI files (FWD)
To convert FWD data files to another format, you need Carlson FieldWorks or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Engineering Measurement Data" file type, you need software like Carlson FieldWorks or a similar tool.
The .FWD file extension primarily acts as a Falling Weight Deflectometer data file, storing pavement deflection measurements recorded by heavy engineering equipment. These files are typically encoded in UTF-16 (LE) text format. The extension is heavily fragmented and is also widely used for Siemens WinCC flexible HMI panel runtime projects, Carlson FieldWorks surveying data, Oasys Frew retaining wall analysis, and even basic forwarded email messages generated by Apple Mail.
Because .FWD spans completely unrelated industries, working with these files is notoriously frustrating. If you do not own specialized civil engineering software like Bentley PLAXIS or Oasys Frew, viewing the structural data natively is nearly impossible. Alternatively, if your file is a Siemens HMI runtime, it is a compiled binary explicitly designed to be locked down - meaning it requires an expensive proprietary license and cannot be easily reverse-engineered back into an editable project.
Due to this closed, proprietary nature, standard online converters fail entirely when attempting to process .FWD files. They either guess the wrong format or lack the specialized parsers required for industrial data. Often, only the original software can properly read or export the raw data. Our analysis engine can detect if the file relies on an underlying format - such as standard text in pavement files or RTF in Apple Mail forwards - allowing you to extract the data.
When conversion is possible, the best target formats for deflectometer and surveying data are CSV, XLSX, or TXT, which allow for further analysis in standard spreadsheet software. For forwarded emails, converting to PDF or EML ensures cross-platform readability. Keep in mind that converting HMI runtime files or satellite firmware into editable formats will fail, as they are compiled machine instructions rather than extractable data.
Convert.Guru analyzes your FWD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted EML, ZIP, MSG, FRW, HTML, JPG, GPX, TOC, MOC, AWD and RWD files.
If you want to convert FWD file to AWD, RWD, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML or ENV, you can use Carlson FieldWorks or similar software from the "Pavement Deflection Measurement Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to FWD, try Carlson FieldWorks or another comparable tool in the "Pavement Deflection Measurement Data" 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 FWD converter.