VSD File: What It Is & How to Open One

Microsoft Visio uses this file as a drawing project

By
Tim Fisher
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Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on September 6, 2024

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What to Know

  • A VSD file is a drawing project created and used by Visio.
  • It contains things like CAD drawings, charts, text, and annotations.
  • Convert one to PDF, an image format, or HTML at Zamzar.

This article describes what a VSD file is and how to open one or convert one to a different format.

What Is a VSD File?

A file with the .VSD file extension is a drawing file created by Visio, Microsoft's professional graphics application. These are binary files that might hold text, images, CAD drawings, charts, annotations, objects, and more.

Visio files are used to make everything from software and network diagrams to flowcharts and organizational charts.

VSD Files

Microsoft Visio 2013 (and newer) default to storing Visio drawing files with the .VSDX file extension, which is based on XML and compressed with ZIP.

VSD is also short for some things that have nothing to do with computer file formats, like variable speed drive, Visual Studio debugger, vertical situation display, and virtual shared disk. It's also the name of the disc-based analog video format that stands for Video Single Disc.

How to Open VSD Files

Visio is the primary program used to create, open, and edit VSD files. If you don't have that program, you can still open the file with CorelDRAW, iGrafx FlowCharter, or ConceptDraw PRO.

For some free ways to open a VSD file without Visio, try LibreOffice or Microsoft Visio 2013 Viewer. The former is a free office suite similar to MS Office (which is what Visio is a part of) and the latter is a free tool from Microsoft that, once installed, will open VSD files in your web browser.

LibreOffice and ConceptDraw PRO can open VSD files on macOS as well as Windows. Mac users can also use VSD Viewer; the same app is available for iPad and iPhone.

VSDX files are used in MS Office 2013 and newer, so you need the Microsoft Visio Compatibility Pack if you want to use the file in an older version of the software. These are structured differently than VSD files, which means you can extract some of the contents without even needing any of these programs. Your best bet is with a free file extractor like 7-Zip.

How to Convert a VSD File

The programs mentioned above can probably save it to other formats, but Zamzar, a free file converter website, makes this really easy. It lets you convert a VSD file online to PDF, BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIF/TIFF.

You can use Visio's File > Save As menu option to convert the file to VSDX and other Visio file formats like VSSX, VSS, VSTX, VST, VSDM, VSTM, and VDW. Visio can also save the file to SVG, DWG, DXF, HTML, PDF, and several image file formats, making sharing really easy.

Still Can't Open the File?

If the information above doesn't help you open or convert your file, it's possible that you're not working with a VSD file. Double-check the file extension to ensure it reads ".VSD" at the end of the file name. If it doesn’t, you may be dealing with a different file that happens to share some of the same letters in its extension.

For example, PSD looks almost like VSD, but it's used with Photoshop, not Visio. ESD files are similar but might be used with the Microsoft Windows operating system or the Expert Scan software from AutoData Systems. VSO files are used by the DirectX SDK's vertex shader tool.

Another one that's a little confusing is the VST file extension. It could be a Visio drawing template, but it might instead be a VST audio plugin. If it's the former then it, of course, can open with Visio, but if it's a plugin, it has to be used with a program that can accept that format, which isn't Visio.

The VHD and VHDX file extensions are similar, too, but those are used for virtual hard drives.

More Information on the VSD Format

This format uses lossless compression to compress the contents of the file. A similar format called Visio drawing XML (it uses the .VDX file extension) does not. This is why VDX files are often three to five times larger in file size than VSDs.

Even though Visio 2013+ doesn't default to storing new documents in the VSD format, these versions still fully support the format so that you can open, edit, and save to it if you want to.

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