Extract text from StarOffice drawings (SDA1)
To convert SDA1 drawings to another format, you need LibreOffice Draw or other Vector Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "Legacy Drawing File" file type, you need software like LibreOffice Draw or a similar tool.
An .SDA1 file is a legacy vector graphic or backup document originally used to store flowcharts, organizational charts, and technical diagrams. It was developed primarily for StarDraw, a vector editing tool bundled with the discontinued StarOffice suite (the predecessor to Apache OpenOffice).
The .SDA1 format is completely obsolete and highly proprietary. Because it relies on a closed, undocumented binary structure, modern software - including current web browsers and standard image viewers - cannot read it. Users face massive frustration when trying to access their old designs because installing a 20-year-old office suite just to view a single diagram is both a security risk and technically difficult on modern 64-bit operating systems.
To revive your data, we recommend converting .SDA1 to SVG. This preserves the original infinite scalability and vector path data for future editing. If you only need to view or print the document, converting to PDF or a raster format like PNG is the best pragmatic workaround, though you may lose layer separation.
This file format is difficult to open or convert because it relies on a closed, outdated binary structure. Often, only the original StarOffice software can properly read or export the data, causing standard online converters to fail outright. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SDA1 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert SDA1 file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use LibreOffice Draw or similar software from the "Legacy Vector Graphics 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 SDA1, try LibreOffice Draw or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Vector Graphics 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 SDA1 converter.