Importing & Exporting Chart Files
Contents
This chapter describes how you can use Solar Fire's Chart Conversion Utility to import and/or export natal type charts to or from chart files created by Solar Fire or various other astrological software, as well as sending chart details to text files.
Note that you can also export planetary type data such as longitudes and latitudes – please refer to Exporting Data to Text Files for further details.
Most charts produced by Astrolabe and Matrix Blue*Star or QuickCharts compatible software may be imported into Solar Fire format. The capability to import other types of chart files may also be added at a later date. If you have Nova, Chartwheels, Professional Natal Report, Blue*Star, or QuickCharts, and you have calculated and saved important natal charts using these programs, Solar Fire can import them into its own chart file format.
This utility searches for and processes only the natal chart records in your chart files. It does not import or export derived-type charts such as progressed charts, solar and lunar returns, and composite charts, for example.
Note: The ASCII text data that can be imported or exported using this utility can consist only of chart details such as name, date, place, timezone etc, and cannot include planetary or house data such as planetary and house cusp longitudes, declinations etc. If you wish to export planetary type data from Solar Fire, then you must use the Export Charts as Text… item from the Chart menu, instead. See Exporting Data to Text Files for further details.
Note: Solar Fire is able to open, read and save charts in Nova type chart files directly, without the need to import or export chart files. Hence, if you are using Nova type chart files, then you do not need to import or export using this utility them unless you want to do so.
The difference between this utility and the "Import Charts & Settings" option on the "Utilities" menu is that this utility can import or export charts from/to a whole range of chart files (only) of different program origin and/or Solar Fire versions stored somewhere on your computer, an external disk or network, whereas the "Import Charts & Settings" option can import a whole range of user and settings files, including chart files, (but only if they are part of a previous version of Solar Fire installed somewhere on your computer, an external disk or network).
Chart Files You Can Import From