What Is a PCD File?

This article describes four file formats that use the PCD file extension, including how to open the one you have and how to convert it into a different file format.

What Is a PCD File?

A file with the PCD file extension could be a Wonder Card game file used by Pokémon games on the Nintendo DS.

If your PCD file isn't related to gaming, it could be a Kodak Photo CD image used to store high-resolution photos on CDs, a pure component data file, or a Point Cloud Data file.

How to Open a PCD File

PCD files that are Wonder Card files unlock new events and other things in the Pokémon Nintendo DS game. Pokémon Mystery Gift Editor edits these types of PCD files. The PokeGen program opens PCD files so that the files can be imported into saved games (files with the .SAV extension). Pokésav might work, too.

Open a Kodak Photo CD image file with ThumbsPlus, Corel PaintShop Pro, IrfanView (it might require a plug-in and only work in the 32-bit version), XnView, Zoner Photo Studio, or another popular photo and graphics tools. Adobe Photoshop works, too, but only if it's CS3 or CS2.

Pure component data files are chemical data files used by ChemSep. You might also have luck using COCO to open one.

Point Cloud Library opens data files in that format.

How to Convert a PCD File

Pcdtojpeg converts a Kodak Photo CD image's highest available resolution into a JPG file on both Windows and macOS. This tool is used through the command line, so read Using Pcdtojpeg With CPD Files to understand how it works.

Another option that converts a PCD image is CoolUtils.com. Upload the PCD file to that website, then choose to convert a PCD file to JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, ICO, PNG, or PDF.

If you have a Point Cloud Data file, there's a pcd2ply command that can convert PCD to PLY (a Polygon model).

Still Can't Open It?

If your file doesn't open at this point, it's likely that you're not dealing with a PCD file. This might be the case if you've misread the file extension, which is really easy to do with an extension that has such common letters.

For example, PCT, PSD, and PDD are off by just one letter when compared to PCD, but trying to open one of those files in a Pokémon program, for example, won't get you very far, and you'll probably run into some errors.

The same could be said for others like PDC, PPC, and PCC files. Whether you have one of those files or something entirely different, research the letters/numbers that follow the filename to learn more about the format and what program you need to have in order to open, edit, or convert your file.