How to open a .pj7 file (EQ7 project)

What a .pj7 file is

A file ending in .pj7 is a project from Electric Quilt 7 (EQ7), the version before EQ8. Like an EQ8 project, it holds the quilts, blocks and fabrics you gathered in that project’s Sketchbook. If you used EQ7’s recommended install, Electric Quilt says its projects are in Documents › My EQ7 › PJ7.

Electric Quilt’s rule for opening any project is simple: your version of EQ must be the same as the one that made it, or newer. So:

• EQ8 opens .pj7 files.
• EQ7 can’t open .pj8 files. If you’re sharing with someone still on EQ7, send a picture or a PDF instead.

Opening a .pj7 file in EQ8

These are Electric Quilt’s steps. EQ8 won’t list an EQ7 project among your existing projects, so you browse to it:

1. On the EQ8 Home Screen, click Open an existing project, or choose FILE › Open Project.
2. In the Project Helper, click Click here to open a project not listed above, at the bottom left.
3. Go to the folder the file is in (usually Documents › My EQ7 › PJ7), choose the .pj7 file and click Open.
4. The project’s Sketchbook opens. Close it.
5. The title bar now says Untitled. Before you change anything, choose FILE › Save As.
6. Save it in your EQ8 projects folder: Documents › My EQ8 › Projects on Windows, or Home › My EQ8 › Projects on a Mac. Give it a name and save.

That makes a new EQ8 project (.pj8) and leaves your .pj7 file as it was. From now on it appears in EQ8’s list of existing projects.

EQ7 on a newer Mac

EQ7 for Mac is a 32-bit program. Apple’s macOS Mojave was the last version to run 32-bit apps, and Electric Quilt has said it won’t convert EQ7 to 64-bit, so EQ7 doesn’t run on macOS Catalina or anything newer. Electric Quilt’s suggestions were to stay on a macOS that still runs it, or upgrade to EQ8.

If your Mac has moved on, your .pj7 files are still safe in Documents › My EQ7. You just need something else to open them: EQ8, or another app that reads them. If you’re weighing EQ8 on a Mac, read EQ8 on macOS 27 and 28 first.

Backing up and moving to a new computer

Copying the whole My EQ7 folder copies your projects and library files. Electric Quilt notes this works whether or not EQ7 is still installed or activated on the old computer.

1. On the old computer, open Documents and copy the My EQ7 folder to a USB drive.
2. On the new computer, copy it into Documents.
3. If EQ7 is installed there and has made an empty My EQ7 folder, replace that folder with your copy.

Moving to EQ8 instead? Keep the copy anyway: EQ8 opens your .pj7 files straight from it.

EQ6, EQ5 and older

Electric Quilt lists each version’s file ending and where its recommended install kept projects:

• EQ6: .pj6, in Documents › My EQ6 › PJ6
• EQ5: .pj5, in C: › Documents › My EQ5 › PJ5
• EQ4: .pj4, and EQ3: .prj, in each version’s PRJ folder on drive C:

EQ8 opens these the same way as a .pj7. Electric Quilt warns that EQ3, EQ4 and EQ5 projects may show “some inconsistencies”, and that projects from EQ1 or EQ2 can’t be opened at all.

If you don’t have EQ8

Electric Quilt says a person without EQ can’t open or view a project. If you still have EQ7, it opens .pj7 files as it always did. If you don’t have either:

• Upgrade to EQ8. Electric Quilt sells an upgrade from EQ7 to EQ8 at $99.95, for registered EQ7 owners, on Windows or Mac. EQ8 on its own is $239.95.
• Ask for a picture. If someone sent you the file, ask them for a picture or a PDF of the quilt instead.
• Open it in an app that reads EQ7. Most quilt design apps don’t. Our comparison of EQ8 alternatives says which ones import EQ files at all.

Opening .pj7 files in Quarter Inch

Quarter Inch reads EQ7 projects as well as EQ8 ones, with the same reader and the same report. You don’t need EQ, and you don’t need to save them as EQ8 projects first. Of the 252 real EQ files we test against, 161 are EQ7 projects.

• One file: on Quarter Inch’s home page, use Choose files… and pick the .pj7. It’s read in your browser, with no account.
• All of them: use Choose a folder… and pick your My EQ7 folder. We find the .pj7 and .pj8 projects in it and leave everything else alone.
• EQ6 and older: we can’t read these yet. The import says so (“An EQ6 project. We can’t read these yet.”). If you have EQ8, open the project there and save it as an EQ8 project, and that .pj8 opens in Quarter Inch.

Your original file is never changed. For each file you get a report saying what came across: see what comes across from EQ, feature by feature, and if an EQ file won’t open.