Topic: Any way to view a drawing file as code?

[KewlToyZ]

I have some corrupted files from 1993 I need only one of them.
I just wondered if there was a way to view these files as code and possibly repair them?
I beleive they would be R10, R12 or at most R14 format.

[James Cannon]

Are they DWG or DXF?

If they are DXF just open them in notepad.

[deegeecees]

Right click->Open With...->Notepad

[KewlToyZ]

DWG format, I did it with Textpad already after posting.
Most of them including the cover sheet are a single string of the same character, they goners for sure.
I was able to recover a few but they didn't have anything useful left.
Someone had zipped them into a zip file way back when, why? who knows, I think the zip process helped euthenize them  :ugly:

[David Hall]

try inserting them into a blank dwg or xrefing them in

[KewlToyZ]

Thanks, I had already tried it, they errored no matter what.
It's funny but thinking back, the year on the files were 1993...

We are talking about DOS, Windows 3.1, AutoCAD R12 if we are lucky.
The zip utility in use was PKZIP.
Average hard drive size was what 8 MB? 
Processor was 286 maybe 386?

The disk volumes converted for these backups went from DOS, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS ?