TBD Converter

Extract text from TBD files

Select File
Drop or upload your .TBD file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your TBD file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your TBD file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert TBD to another file type

To convert your TBD file to another format, you need Star Wars: Empire at War or other Game software.

TBD to DYLIB
TBD to TMP
TBD to TEMP
TBD to CACHE
TBD to LOG
TBD to BAK
TBD to OLD
TBD to NEW
TBD to PART
TBD to DOWNLOAD
TBD to CRDOWNLOAD
TBD to LOCK

Convert a file to TBD

To convert other file formats to the "Data Container" file type, you need software like Star Wars: Empire at War or a similar tool.

DEVICE to TBD
CACHE to TBD
SOCK to TBD
SYMLINK to TBD
PID to TBD
MOUNT to TBD
FIFO to TBD
LOG to TBD
PIPE to TBD
TMP to TBD
JUNCTION to TBD
TEMP to TBD

About TBD files

A .tbd file typically falls into one of two distinct categories, both of which present unique access challenges. The most common variety is a proprietary game data container used by the Alamo Engine in titles developed by Petroglyph Games (such as Star Wars: Empire at War). These files are technically RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) containers that bundle game assets like scripts, audio, or text. Because they are compiled binary archives, they cannot be opened with standard editors, and users often struggle to extract the assets for modding or viewing without specialized community tools.

Alternatively, if you are a developer on macOS, a .tbd file is likely a Text-Based Stub Library. Introduced by Apple in Xcode, these files replaced binary dylib files in SDKs to reduce download sizes. While they contain human-readable YAML text describing the library's symbols and architecture, the operating system often treats them as system files, preventing easy access.

Conversion Recommendations:

For Apple/Developer Files: Since these are plain text masked as system files, the best "conversion" is often to open them directly in a code editor or convert them to TXT or YAML to inspect the exported symbols and architectures (e.g., x86_64, arm64).
For Game Files: Direct conversion is difficult due to the proprietary RIFF structure. Use game-specific modding tools to extract contents to WAV (audio) or TXT (scripts).
For Toon Boom: Users of Toon Boom Harmony may encounter .tbd files as drawing templates; these should be exported directly from the software to PDF or PNG for sharing.

Convert.Guru analyzes your TBD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted TDB, LG, XCT, RECORD and DYLIB files.

The TBD 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 TBD converter.