Help! Can't Open mysterious .sch and .pcb files

[guitarjoe91]

I'm struggling to open some old .sch and .pcb files from out PCBA supplier in Altium17 or Altium18.  Our supplier says the files were probably created in Protel 99.  No combination of opening the files or importers in Altium have worked thus far.  What should I do?

[AndersJ]

PADS from Mentor Graphics uses those file extensions.
sch: Schematics
pcb: Layout

[frozenfrogz]

Can you open the files with a text editor and post the header? (or upload files to have someone else take a look at these mysterious files).

[guitarjoe91]

Here is the header of one of the files when opened in Notepad.  Looks like a garbled mess to me:

 þ
   7                         
   L     L  ðŒv              !
  !
  Hv      
      A  A  h»R         
    À 
   0   X›v        0      Ø   °
  `[w          
  d   
  hcw              ‘   ˜
   ew     
         þ  ø   ÍS              X  U   8  w “'
  X   
  D   P  }w    @         z  z  P“v      
              (îw    @      ˜F  û   ˜F  0õw        H    ”  $   @S  Ð;x    @   P  @ 
   $   ØÏx       $   À
          @ž(                      Òx    @      À
           (              C     (Ùx          $   
   $   @¸b   
   $   Field
Drawn By
Field
Checked By
Field
QC By
Field
Released By
Field
Drawn Date
Field
Checked Date
Field
QC Date
Field
Release Date
Field
                                                                                                                                                                                           

[tautech]

I'm struggling to open some old .sch and .pcb files from out PCBA supplier in Altium17 or Altium18.  Our supplier says the files were probably created in Protel 99.  No combination of opening the files or importers in Altium have worked thus far.  What should I do?

Yep, sch and pcb file extensions go way back to Protel days.

Earlier versions of Altium will import and open them.

[Chris56000]

Hi!

Have you tried using the AutoTrax Altium Freeware to open them?

NB! Please do NOT confuse this with AutoTraxDEX (Kov's) software - this is NOT the one you need!

Another possibility is they might be P-Cad 2004 files - I don't know wether trial versions are still available as P-Cad was retired years ago!

Chris Williams

[mikeselectricstuff]

Almost every PCB package uses .pcb and .sch extensions, so unless there are clues in text in the file,it's trial & error on importers/viewers

[apurvdate]

There is also ExpressPCB (https://www.expresspcb.com/)
I havn't used it for ages..used it in college days actually... but it has .sch & .pcb file extensions..
I see they've updated version.. classic version also available..

[Jeroen3]

Open the file in a hex viewer, look at the magic bytes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures

[Nusa]

Open the file in a hex viewer, look at the magic bytes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures

Valid idea, bad source of data for this problem. There are no pcb or sch software packages on that list, not even the mainstream ones.