Extract text from CAD floor plans (PB1)
To convert PB1 floor plans to another format, you need Punch! Home Design or other Cad software.
To convert other file formats to the "Home Design Project" file type, you need software like Punch! Home Design or a similar tool.
The .pb1 extension typically refers to a Punch! Home Design Floor Plan, a proprietary format generated by Punch! Home Design Studio. These files contain 2D and 3D architectural data, including walls, electrical layouts, and interior design elements. While excellent for drafting, the format is a "black box" for anyone without the specific paid software installed. Clients and contractors often cannot open .pb1 files directly, creating a significant bottleneck in project communication. To share these designs with stakeholders or view them on mobile devices, users essentially need to convert them into universally accessible formats like PDF for documentation, JPG for quick visuals, or DXF if transferring geometry to other CAD platforms like AutoCAD.
A secondary but notable use of .pb1 is within the BIM (Building Information Modeling) sector as a Reinforcement Schedule file generated by Allplan (part of the Nemetschek Group). These files store technical data regarding steel reinforcement (rebar) in concrete structures. Like the home design files, these are strictly specialized; sending a raw .pb1 schedule to a site manager or structural engineer who doesn't use Allplan is ineffective. The pragmatic solution is converting these data-heavy files into PDF for printing or XLSX (if data extraction is supported) for inventory management. Other niche uses include project files for Advanced Tubular ProBend or legacy Power-CAD Pro drawings, both of which suffer from the same software lock-in, requiring conversion for long-term archiving.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PB1 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PL1, PL2, PB, XD, LMK, CWZ and PB2 files.
If you want to convert PB1 file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Punch! Home Design or similar software from the "Architectural Floor Plan" 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 PB1, try Punch! Home Design or another comparable tool in the "Architectural Floor Plan" 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 PB1 converter.