Extract text from SWP files
To convert your SWP file to another format, you need Vim or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Temporary Recovery & Automation" file type, you need software like Vim or a similar tool.
A .SWP file is most commonly a temporary recovery file created by the Vim text editor (or Vi), but it can also be a VBA macro used by SolidWorks.
In the context of Vim, these files are automatically generated to store unsaved changes to a document (a buffer) in case of a system crash or power failure. They are binary files, not simple text, meaning you cannot just double-click to read them in Notepad. A frequent source of frustration is that .SWP files often persist as hidden files (e.g., .filename.swp) if the editor is not closed properly, triggering annoying "Swap file already exists!" warnings. Users typically need to "convert" these files by recovering the text content into a standard TXT, PY, or C file to salvage lost work.
In the engineering world, a .SWP file serves a completely different purpose as a SolidWorks VBA Macro. These contain automation scripts based on the Microsoft Compound File format. Engineers often need to convert these macros to plain text VBA or TXT files to review the code logic without opening the heavy SolidWorks IDE, or to archive scripts in version control systems like Git.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SWP file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted TEX, HWP, TXT, SWF, ZIP, WEBP, PDF, DOCX, SPW, JAM, EXE, TSX and DS_STORE files.
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 SWP converter.