Extract text from Geotechnical drawings (GDW)
To convert GDW drawings to another format, you need GetData Graph Digitizer or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Workspace Data File" file type, you need software like GetData Graph Digitizer or a similar tool.
The .GDW file extension primarily represents a Graph Digitizer Workspace file created by GetData Graph Digitizer. In this context, it stores digitized coordinates extracted from scanned graphs, plots, or charts in an XML format. Alternatively, a .GDW file can be a Geotechnical Drawing Data file used by Bentley gINT, storing engineering drawing and layout data in a JetDB database format.
Users often need to convert these files because .GDW is a proprietary, software-dependent format. It cannot be opened by web browsers, standard office suites, or mobile devices. Sharing a raw .GDW file is useless if the recipient does not have a paid license for the exact parent software. This creates a massive bottleneck when trying to share digitized coordinate data or engineering layouts with clients or team members.
To make the data usable, you must convert it. For graph data, the best target formats are CSV or XLSX, allowing you to plot the coordinates in Microsoft Excel or other statistical software. For Bentley gINT geotechnical drawings, exporting to standard CAD formats like DXF or universal documents like PDF is highly recommended. Note that converting a workspace file means losing the software-specific layout or session states, preserving only the hard data.
These proprietary formats are notoriously difficult to convert because standard online converters do not understand their internal structure. Often, only the original software can properly read or export the data. However, just drag and drop your file into convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. Since the most common .GDW file is based on standard XML, our analysis can often detect the supported underlying text, allowing you to extract raw coordinates even without the parent software installed.
Convert.Guru analyzes your GDW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted DWG, FMF, KDT and MC3 files.
If you want to convert GDW file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use GetData Graph Digitizer or similar software from the "Workspace Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to GDW, try GetData Graph Digitizer or another comparable tool in the "Workspace Data Storage" 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 GDW converter.