The report program both reads and can save charts into Solar Fire chart files that end with a .CHT extension. This is the chart-file format of Solar Fire 5 and below, and charts saved in this format can be exported into many other astrological programs and even used in some of them directly.

In addition to the .CHT chart file format, Solar Fire 6 Deluxe offers a new .SFCHT format which is not readable by other programs. The only reason for saving your charts into this format would be to save life events along with the natal chart. If you won't be using the life events feature, when you are asked what format to save your charts into, you should specify the older Solar Fire v5 .CHT format.

If you've already saved your Solar Fire charts into the new Solar Fire v6 .SFCHT format, however, not to worry! It's easy to make a copy of your .SFCHT chart files in Solar Fire 5 .CHT format. Then you can use the .CHT charts in Complete Relationship Report, Nova Chartwheels and other programs, and you'll still have a duplicate in .SFCHT format in case you want to add life events.

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To re-save your Solar Fire 6 Deluxe .SFCHT charts into Solar Fire 5 .CHT format:

1. In Solar Fire, select Chart menu > Open, and select the charts you want to convert so that they appear in the Calculated Charts list on the main screen.

2. Highlight the charts you want to convert (using the Ctrl and/or Shift keys to highlight multiple charts), and then select Chart menu > Save to File... .

3. In the File Management box that opens, you can either select an already-existing .CHT file to save the charts into, or click the Create... button and type in a name for a new chart file.

4. If you do the latter, you will be asked whether you want to create a v6 format chart file or a v5 chart file. To save the chart(s) into the Solar Fire v5 format .CHT file, answer No.

Unless you specify otherwise, all your Solar Fire charts in either format will be saved into your C:\SFDeluxe\Userdata folder.

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To use Solar Fire charts to generate Astrolabe Reports:

1. Open Astrolabe Reports and select Files/Charts menu > Open Charts (or select Old on the tools rosette) in order to open the file manager window.

2. Under Select File, click on the down-arrow and select Solar Fire 3/4/5 Files. If all your Solar Fire files are in one place, the pane at the bottom should change to show all your Solar Fire chart files that end in .CHT. (Your .SFCHT files will not show up here.) If your .CHT files don't show up here, you either don't have any files of this type, or you can find them using the directory tree at the top. Ordinarily, the charts will be located in C:\SFDeluxe\Userdata.

3. Select the .CHT file you want, and you will see the charts in it listed in the top left-hand pane. Double-click on the chart(s) you want. This will make them show up in the Active Charts pane, where you can select them and assign reports to them in the usual way.
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You can also cast charts in Astrolabe Reports and save them into existing or new Solar Fire .CHT files in your C:\SFDeluxe\Userdata folder. If you are creating a new Solar Fire 5 chart file from within the Astrolabe Reports program, just add the .CHT extension when you are asked to type in a new file name.