File extension VE

[Swift]

Hi - we have recently had a very old pc expire on us but have been able to save all the files from the harddrive. However, they are all in VE format which we have found we cannot open on the new pc now set up for sign-making. We have signblazer 5.5 (SBD) on the new pc and also have access to photo shop. AI extension would also be ok.

Does anyone know of a programme I can download to convert these files?
There seems to be plenty out there to convert music files but am having difficulty finding one to do this job for me.

Any help would be appreciated

[Staff]

.VE is Sign Studio? I was not certain and so only had that in the database provisionally.

[Swift]

Yes its sign studio, and very old - must be nearly 14 years old now - not sure if its possible to convert at all - havnt had much luck on google

[Jerry777]

Hi Swift,
If you have your original discs of Sign Studio you can install these easily onto a 98 computer and still run Sign Studio provided you still have the original hardware key.

I have not tired this on a Windows XP computer so I do not know whether this program will actually run on XP.

Choose your files and convert text to curves (if you do not know how to do this in Sign Studio then I can find out and post the information) and then use the eps export filter.

The eps export filter in Sign Studio produces an eps file that will open in SignBlazer however I do not know of any other software that will open this very, very weird eps file format.

When you import these into SignBlazer they will import at a fraction of the correct size (example 0.0003 mm). So use Control A (to select all) and then press Z (size) and type in a new size and press OK. Then your file will be on the screen.

One last thing is that I remember that all the objects must be within the page boundary before exporting and selected.

[Jerry777]

Hi DaBoss,
Here is short history of the VE format.
Sign Studio is only one of six names that this program has had over the few short years it was in existence. It was written by a computer games company in the UK called Electric Studio. The guy who wrote it was named Dave Hawks. He is the programmer who did the great fingerprint stuff for Scotland Yard. The software was originally written to scan and vectorise artwork so it could be cut on a Gerber 4b. However as far as I know they never achieved connecting to a Gerber 4B successfully and actually cutting logos. The Roland PNC100 was released in 1987 and immediately Dave wrote a driver for this desktop cutter. It worked well. Where did the file format name with the letters VE come from? Well the program was first called Vector Eyes. Hence the VE file extension. It could use a grey scale video camera as well to bring in artwork for vectorisation. The program was years ahead of anything else in the world. It was released into the world market in late 1989. In 1992 only after two years in the Market place it was sold to Cadlink Technologies in Canada. They did nothing with the program except to use the source code to release another product called Cadlink for Windows. This later in 1995 became SignLab.

[Staff]

Wonderful. Thank you. I've added the history and links to CADLink Technology to the master database and the changes will be in tonights update upload.

[Swift]

Thanks Jerry, much apprecaited