How to open .XB files on Mac
To open .XB files on Mac, install XMOS XTC Tools for your environment (use the XTC Tools documentation as the reference for your version).
Step-by-step instructions
- Install XMOS XTC Tools for your environment (use the XTC Tools documentation as the reference for your version).
- In Terminal, run xobjdump on the .xb file to inspect contents or generate needed outputs.
Common issues
The file won’t open in CAD/3D software
.xb is easy to confuse with Parasolid binary files, which are commonly .x_b (with an underscore). XMOS .xb files are tooling outputs tied to XE/ELF handling and are not Parasolid CAD exchange files.
- Check the exact filename/extension: Parasolid binary is typically .x_b, not .xb.
- If it is truly .xb from an XMOS project, use XMOS XTC Tools (xobjdump) rather than CAD software.
Windows asks which app to use / ‘Unknown file type’
XMOS .xb outputs are not a common desktop file type and usually do not have system file associations.
- Install XMOS XTC Tools and use xobjdump from the command line to work with the file.
- If you just need to identify it, confirm it came from an XMOS build step that ran xobjdump to produce an .xb-suffixed XE output.
Tooling mismatch: xobjdump errors or unexpected output
The .xb-suffixed output is defined in XMOS tool documentation; using an incompatible tool version or expecting a different input/output type can lead to failures.
- Verify you are using the XMOS XTC Tools/xobjdump version documented for your project (the v15.3 docs describe the .xb output behavior).
- Recreate the .xb from the original XE using the documented xobjdump options so the file matches what downstream steps expect.
Security note
.xb files in the XMOS context are part of an executable/toolchain pipeline (XE/ELF-derived). Treat them as potentially executable firmware artifacts and only use them if you trust the project/source.