Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your SYM file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert SYM to another file type
To convert SYM Symbols to another format, you need AutoCAD or other Data software.
Convert a file to SYM
To convert other file formats to the "Symbol Data File" file type, you need software like AutoCAD or a similar tool.
About SYM files
The .SYM file format is highly fragmented, acting as a container for either engineering graphics or software debugging data. In the engineering and manufacturing sectors, it stores reusable 2D or 3D geometries for CAD/CAM systems, electronic circuit boards, CAN bus signals, or SCADA environments. Popular applications generating these files include AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS, and PC|SCHEMATIC. In the software development field, .SYM acts as an ELF debug symbol file mapped by compilers or tools like Google Breakpad to connect compiled machine code back to human-readable source code. The primary disadvantage of a .SYM file is severe vendor lock-in and structural ambiguity. Because the extension is shared across dozens of unrelated software ecosystems, your operating system cannot reliably guess how to open it. Under the hood, a .SYM file could be formatted as plain UTF-8 text, a ZIP archive, an XML document, or a proprietary Microsoft Compound binary. Finding the right software often requires expensive licenses, and opening a binary symbol file in a standard text editor will display corrupted gibberish. To make these files accessible, you must convert them into standard formats. For technical drawings and graphical symbols, convert to SVG, DXF, or PDF to share with clients or view in a web browser. For debug symbol tables, parsing the data into TXT or JSON allows developers to read the logs without specialized reverse-engineering tools like IDA Pro. Drop your file here to view and convert it securely right in your browser.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SYM file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert SYM file to DBC, DWG, DXF, DGN, RVT, RFA, SKP, 3DM, STEP, IGES, SAT or X_T, you can use AutoCAD or similar software from the "Symbol Library Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SLDASM, DGN, PRT, IAM, X_B, CATPRODUCT, SLDPRT, RVT, ASM, DWG, CATPART or DXF files to SYM, try AutoCAD or another comparable tool in the "Symbol Library Storage" category.
The SYM Converter Story
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 SYM converter.