How to View an SDF File

By Charles Jackson

An SDF is a file type that can refer to various different types of file. If you are trying to open a file that has this extension, it is best to open it with the program that created it. However, if you do not know this for any reason, you can follow a few easy steps to see if you can view its contents.

Try to open the file with a viewer that supports the standard data format. The most common format type of files ending in the .SDF extension are of this type; a cross-platform medium for storing various types of data. Programs that can read these types of files include pervasive PSQL and dataBased Intelligence dBASE.

Try opening the file with AutoCAD. AutoCAD is a computer-aided-design suite used by architects and 3D modelers. SDF files saved by AutoCAD contain geospatial and infrastructure data. In this case, SDF stands for spatial data format."

Try to open the file with a viewer that supports the structure data file type, a chemical data file format used natively by Avogadro for Macintosh. There are also many other programs that can open this type of file including Hyleos ChemFileBrowser, ChemDBsoft and CheD.

Use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to open the file. The SDF extension is also used for the SQL server compact database format. Another third-party utility for opening this type of file is Flyhoward SDF Viewer.

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