Extract text from PDA files
To convert your PDA file to another format, you need SoftMax Pro or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Scientific Analysis Data" file type, you need software like SoftMax Pro or a similar tool.
A .pda file typically represents research or industrial data stored in a proprietary format, most commonly generated by Molecular Devices SoftMax Pro for microplate reader analysis. These files contain critical biological assay data, such as absorbance and fluorescence readings, organized in protocols and plate setups. A significant number of .pda files also originate from geotechnical engineering tools like Pile Dynamics (Pile Driving Analyzer) or Pagani Geotechnical equipment, storing penetration test results.
The main difficulty with .pda files is their lack of interoperability; they are essentially "locked" boxes that require expensive, niche software to open. Researchers and engineers often find themselves unable to share raw data with colleagues who do not possess a specific license for SoftMax Pro or PDAWin. Furthermore, these files cannot be natively viewed in standard office tools like Microsoft Excel or web browsers.
To make this data accessible and usable, the best practice is to convert these files based on your end goal. For data analysis and graphing, convert .pda files to XLSX (Excel) or CSV (Comma Separated Values) to manipulate the raw numbers. For archiving, sharing, or including in published reports, convert them to PDF to preserve the layout of the diagnostic charts and assay results without risking formatting errors. Graphics-based .pda files (from Print Artist) should be converted to JPG or PNG for easy viewing.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PDA file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PDF, PDAN, JPG, AI, JPEG, APKG, DOCX, PNG, RFA, GAL and CFG files.
If you want to convert PDA file to CFG, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use SoftMax Pro or similar software from the "Microplate Reader Data" 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 PDA, try SoftMax Pro or another comparable tool in the "Microplate Reader 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 PDA converter.