Opening a MI File

The MI file type is primarily associated with Creo/CoCreate.

MI	File extension: MI
	File type:	CAD drawing file

What is a MI file

MI files mostly belong to Creo/CoCreate. An MI file may hold very different data depending on where it came from. It can be a file used for technical drawings or even for defining materials in game engines and other advanced applications.
The most common use is as a CoCreate drawing file (also seen as a Creo Parametric 2D drawing). Such files contain precise engineering or architectural details that CAD software uses for design work.
Other variants include:

Microstation Drawings: These files, sometimes stored in a GZIP compressed format, contain CAD data for machine parts or 2D structures. For more details, refer to Microstation.

Molecular Imaging Files: Used to store atomic force microscopy images and similar data, these files are produced by instruments like PicoView and analyzed with tools such as Gwyddion. More information is available at Agilent.

Material Instances for Games: In the gaming world (for example, in Cyberpunk 2077), an MI file can define material properties. These are processed by game engines like CryEngine. Visit CryEngine for details.

3D Scene Definitions: Some MI files store information related to 3D scene rendering for tools developed by NVIDIA. See NVIDIA Developer for more.

Manufacturing Instructions: Files produced by Eagle PCB Design Software contain machine or production guidelines. Further details can be found at Autodesk Eagle.

Renamed PDF Reports or Source Code: Occasionally, an MI file may simply be a PDF document or even plain text source code (as seen with the Miranda interpreter and LLVM IR). Check with a PDF reader or text editor in these cases. For instance, more info is provided on Equeus and Sable.

FilExt.com tip: When dealing with an MI file, inspect the file properties or open it in a text editor to check for hints (like header text or compression markers). This helps determine which specialized software will correctly display its contents.

How to open MI files

You need a suitable software like Creo/CoCreate to open a MI file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your MI file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a MI file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online MI Text Viewer

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Programs that open and convert MI files:

Creo/CoCreate
See the previous paragraphs to learn more about the main application. MI files are often referred to as Creo/CoCreate cads because this type of file is primarily created or used by this software.
CoCreate CAD File
mental ray (Scene File) by mental images GmbH
mental ray generates images of quality and realism and achieves scalable performance through the exploitation of parallelism on both multiprocessor machines and across networks of machines. This file format is classified as Graphic. Related links: .MI Syntax (the Anatomy of an .MI Scene File)
Miscellaneous
Winamp3 MAKI Scripting Library
(see .MAKI)

MI file extension format:

The file format determines how the data is stored in the file. The first characters in a file identify the file format, for example, HTML files start with the bytes <html>. However, different programs can use the same file extension, and file extensions can be assigned incorrectly. So a detailed analysis of a file is vital in order to determine the format and the associated program. Our evaluation of the MI files looks like this:

The MI extension is quite commonly used. The file itself includes different formats for different programs. The two most common formats are as follows:

55% of all MI files are HP ME10 database files. The content consists of binary data as well as text and words. MI files are between 61 KB and 1 MB in size. The file type is very old but is also used today. The keywords TC41:1, PLAST, LANG and ENCODING:UTF-8 are typical for these files. Files like these have the following tags: annotation, drawing and green.
10% of all MI files store the data in the GZIP file format. Gzip is a compressed archive file format. Gzip (GNU zip) is only capable of compressing a single file. The content consists of illegible binary data, which can only be read and interpreted by the associated programs. The file size is in the range of 17 KB to 2 MB. A usual file name is am_2d_0.mi.

All other MI files (35%) have different formats, often e.g. PDF, ZIP, fileType, file and FSLAX. These files sometimes refer to pfxsig, daily, jadore, sample, layer or scene. If you want to find out what your MI file contains, drag and drop it onto this page.

Technical Data for MI File Extension

File classification:

CAD

Related files:

dgn, mtl, pcb, src, geo, mimodel, zip, mi_, mp4, bdl, sdpc, tvm, sdac, html, ami, jpg, upl, pdf, table, db, apk, gz, sa, vcex, dwg, dxf

Mime type:

application/octet-stream

The following listing is compiled from the database produced by the 'Associate This!' program, selected data from the main FILExt database and file extension information submitted by users.

ProgramID: IncrediContent
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\INCRED~1\bin\ImpCnt.exe /tmp /locate /depend %1

ProgramID: midfile
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe /Open %L

ProgramID: QuickTime.smi
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\QUICKT~1\QuickTimePlayer.exe %1

ProgramID: RealPlayer.SMIL.6
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\K-Lite Codec Pack\Media Player Classic\mplayerc.exe %1

ProgramID: RealPlayer.SMIL.6
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\Real\RealOne Player\RealPlay.exe %1

ProgramID: RealPlayer.SMIL.6
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\Real\RealPlayer\RealPlay.exe %1

ProgramID: RealPlayer.SMIL.6
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\Real\RealPlayer\RealPlay.exe /m application/smil %1

ProgramID: Winamp.File
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\Winamp\Winamp.exe %1

ProgramID: XMI
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\MILESS~1\Milesply.exe %1

ProgramID: View Station Document
EXEFile: C:\View\Station\Image.exe %1

ProgramID: ImageView.Document.mi
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\EAI\VISPRO~1\Products\VISVIE~1\VisView.exe

Show all 11 listings To Top

a mi CAD drawing file is a special file format and should only be edited and saved with the appropriate software.

How to solve problems with MI files

Associate the MI file extension with the correct application.
Update your software that should actually open cad drawing files. Because only the current version supports the latest MI file format. Search, therefore, e.g. on the manufacturer website after an available Creo/CoCreate update.
To make sure that your MI file is not corrupted or virus-infected, get the file again and scan it with Google's virustotal.com.
Click here to open your .MI file online - secure, fast, and no downloads needed.