anybodyknow what type of file this is?

@beolight wrote:

”planning dwgs.dat”

Well dats dat den, isnit?

Beolight, I put it into google to see what came up. It seems that there is no way of knowing what will open it unless you know exactly what was used to create it. Maybe try a few searches with .dat file and see what comes up. Sorry I can’t be of more help.

Phil

@beolight wrote:

thanks for that flash of enlightment:confused:

anybody got any constructive ideas.

Ah sorry couldnt resist it :p

Maybe try a computer shop, or alternatively try posting a message on boards.ie under their computer section?

H

Many times you might receive an email with an attachment called winmail.dat. The file is sent from people using Microsoft Outlook as their email program. The file allows Outlook users to send Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) information along with the email so that it retains the look and feel of the document with formatting, fonts, and colors when its received by another Microsoft Outlook user.
Unfortunately, the file is only relevant and used by Microsoft Outlook. Users of Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger, and other email programs will receive the attachment called winmail.dat with the email.

The file is attached to the email because the original sender is sending emails in Microsoft Outlook Rich Text Format instead of Plain Text format.

How to Configure Outlook NOT to send Winmail.dat attachments

To Turn off Rich Text sending for messages in Microsoft Outlook

1) Click on Tools
2) Click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
3) In the Send in this Message Format list, select Plain Text, and then click OK.

This will set your default sending method to Plain Text, which will lose your special formatting options with fonts, colors, etc. However everyone, no matter what email program they are using, will now be able to receive your email with no problems.

There is more information on this topic in the Microsoft Knowledge Base

What if I Want to View the WinMail.dat file?

If you want to view the winmail.dat file and see the message, there are programs that decode the file and allow you to view it. Listed below you will find some of these programs.

Fentun
Will work on Win9X, NT, and 2000 computers. But does not work on Windows XP

WMDecode
Program using a simple drag and drop procedure to view winmail.dat contents

TNEF’s Enough
Macintosh program to decode winmail.dat TNEF attachments

http://www.pchell.com/support/winmaildat.shtml

I hope this helps.

how big is the file?
can you open it in a text editor and check out the header info – may give a clue as to the app in the first few lines.

The file is fom AutoCAD, the dwg is the proper file extension. Errors when send/transfering file can cause the DAT extension. Can happen using P2P software or with MS Outlook problems like above.

AutoCAD might still be able to open it and then you can save it off as .dwg. If not you could try a program listed above by “onegallant”

@beolight wrote:

that DAT file is an information file thats associated with your architect’s autocad on his computer. There’s no point in trying to open it because all it contains is what you saw in notepad. Basically, he’s sent you the wrong file by mistake, so you’ll need to ignore that DAT file and ask him to send you the correct file when he gets back from his holidays.

Maybe if i can email it to someone on the forum here with AutoCAD they can confirm whether or not it can still be opened

It’s definitely NOT an information file from autocad, use autocad all the time and its not an extension it uses. And besides then it would be named planning.

If you want you can email it to me and ill try do something with it. ill PM the details