Extract text from UML source files (PLANTUML)
To convert PLANTUML UML files to another format, you need PlantUML or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "UML Diagram Source Code" file type, you need software like PlantUML or a similar tool.
The .plantuml file is a text-based source file used to define structural and behavioral Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams. Developers and system architects use these files to store diagram logic as plain text code, which allows for easy version control alongside application source code.
To render the actual visual diagrams, users must process the file through the open-source PlantUML tool, which is written in Java and heavily relies on the Graphviz layout engine to position nodes and draw connections.
The primary disadvantage of the .plantuml format is that it is fundamentally non-visual. Stakeholders, clients, or non-technical team members cannot open the file to see the diagram; they will only see raw, proprietary markup syntax. Furthermore, rendering the file locally demands a specific, heavily dependent technology stack (a Java Runtime Environment, Graphviz binaries, and command-line execution or specific IDE plugins), creating a significant barrier for quick viewing.
To share the actual diagram, you must convert the .plantuml file to standard visual formats. Converting to a raster PNG is ideal for quick web sharing or embedding in chat applications, while SVG maintains infinite scalability for professional presentations and web documentation. PDF is a standard target for formal, printable reports. During this conversion, the raw text logic is visually interpreted, meaning the underlying code is permanently lost in the resulting image file.
Because .plantuml relies on a proprietary syntax and external layout engines to generate graphics, generic text or image converters will fail to process it. They do not know how to draw the shapes. Just drag and drop your file into convert.guru to identify the format, view the internal text code, and convert it to an image format if our analysis detects the supported rendering libraries.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PLANTUML file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PUML, TXT, SVG, UML, PLUM, PU, WSD, PNG, DRAWIO, MD, XML, XMI and WSDL files.
If you want to convert PLANTUML file to DRAWIO, PNG, SVG, XML, XMI, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, PAGES or TEX, you can use PlantUML or similar software from the "Text-based UML diagram definition" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert PDF, DOC, ASC, TODO, NFO, MEMO, README, DOCX, JPG, TXT, NOTE or RTF files to PLANTUML, try PlantUML or another comparable tool in the "Text-based UML diagram definition" 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 PLANTUML converter.