Opening a BRD File

The BRD file type is primarily associated with EAGLE.

BRD	File extension: BRD
	File type:	printed circuit board drawing

What is a BRD file?

BRD files mostly belong to EAGLE by Autodesk. A BRD file contains a printed circuit board (PCB) drawing. Different developers and manufacturers encode such BRD files in their own proprietary formats. Hence, third-party programs may be unable to open them. EAGLE, for example, encodes a BRD file as XML or binary data while KiCad and Altium Designer save their printed circuit board layouts as plain text. Another type of BRD file is a boardview (schematics of a printed circuit board, its components, test points etc.). OpenBoardview can read and visualize most BRD boardviews. BRD is also the data transfer format used by Smart Charts Drug Development Suite.

How to open BRD files

You need a suitable software like EAGLE to open a BRD 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 BRD file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a BRD file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online BRD Text Viewer

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Programs that open and convert BRD files:

EAGLE by Autodesk
See the previous paragraphs to learn more about the main application. BRD files are often referred to as EAGLE cads because this type of file is primarily created or used by this software.
Allegro (printed circuit board design) by Cadence
Allegro is a printed circuit design, analysis, and simulation software. A printed circuit board design created with this program is saved in a BRD (board) file. This file format is classified as CAD.
Altium Designer (printed circuit board design) by Altium
Altium Designer is a printed circuit board design and analysis software suite. BRD is one of the file types for storing printed circuit board designs created with Altium Designer. This file format is classified as CAD.
KiCad (printed circuit board layout) by KiCad Developers
KiCad is a free and open source electronics design automation, schematic capture, and electronics circuit design software. It saves printed circuit board layouts in BRD files. This file format is classified as CAD.
OpenBoardview (boardview) by OpenBoardView Developers
OpenBoardview is a free and open source program for viewing electronic circuit schematics stored in various formats. It can open boardviews (electronic schematics) saved in various formats including BRD, CAD, FZ, ASC, and CST. This file format is classified as CAD.
RPG Toolkit (board design) by Christopher Matthews
RPG Toolkit is an application development environment for building 2D role-playing games (RPGs). Boards used in games developed with RPG Toolkit are saved in BRD files. This file format is classified as Developer.
Smart Charts Drug Development Suite (data) by BizInt
Smart Charts Drug Development Suite is a desktop application for creating, customizing, and distributing tabular reports collected from drug pipelines and clinical trial databases. BRD is its data transfer format. This file format is classified as Data.
WinBoard (project) by Micro Logic
WinBoard is a discontinued printed circuit board layout design and manufacturing program. It saves a printed circuit board design project in a BRD file. This file format is classified as CAD.
Winning Bridge (saved hand) by Gerald Wilson
Winning Bridge is a Windows client software for playing bridge card games against the computer. The game grants each player 10 hands per session. It saves each hand in an ASCII-encoded BRD file. This file format is classified as Game.

BRD file format:

A file format defines how the data in the file is structured. The initial characters of a file are called signature, sometimes also referred to as "magic bytes". The signature can be used to infer the file format. If the file extension or signature does not match the file format, errors will occur when opening or editing the file. Exact knowledge of the format is therefore important in order to solve problems occurring in files. Our examination of the BRD files comes to the following conclusion:

The BRD extension is very commonly used. This BRD file itself is among the most popular common file types and includes different formats for the applicable programs. The file formats most commonly found in BRD files are:

30% of all BRD files are Eagle PCB drawing files, which are based on the XML file format. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple text-based format for representing structured information: documents, webpages, data, configuration, books, transactions, invoices, and much more. XML defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The contents of these files can even be read by a human. The files are often between 56 KB and 190 KB in size. It is a modern file type. Several words can almost always be found in the files, e.g. <!DOCTYPE eagle SYSTEM "eagle.dtd">, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>, <drawing>, <settings>, <eagle version="7.6.0">, </settings>, <setting verticaltext="up"/>, <setting alwaysvectorfont="no"></setting>, <setting verticaltext="up"></setting>, <setting alwaysvectorfont="no"/> and <grid. These files are often associated with arduino, board, shield, circuit, stantia, simulating, bombul, sensor, smooth, motor, shiny, start, kasi and trug.
15% of all BRD files belong to Landrex/Testlink PCB Layout. They consist of illegible, cryptic characters. A typical file size is 560 KB. The file name 820-3437.brd or 820-3115-B.brd is typical for these files. These files are often associated with apple, view, book, macbook, boardview and retina.

All other BRD files (55%) have no uniform format, often e.g. EAGLE PCB drawing, KiCad pcbnew PCB layout, BRDOUT, HEADER and BRD. These files are often connected to quanta, acer, dell, compal, aspire or zaamb. Drag & drop your file here to see the file format and a preview of your BRD file!

Technical Data for BRD File Extension

File classification:

CAD

Related files:

bdr, sch, uyap, jrl, rar, zip, bdv, idf, pcb, cad, bvd, bvr, prd, dsn, alg, pcbdoc, pro, drb, con, ipc, cam, lbr

Mime type:

text/xml

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: PhotoMix.Frame
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\PhotoMix\PhotoMix.exe %1

ProgramID: PhotoMix.Frame
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\PhotoMix 3.2\PhotoMix.exe

ProgramID: EasyB.Document
EXEFile: %ProgramFiles%\NEWGAM~1\CARDGA~1\EASYBR~1.EXE

a brd printed circuit board drawing is a special file format by Autodesk and should only be edited and saved with the appropriate software.

How to solve problems with BRD files

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