What is a NAV file?
A .NAV file is most commonly a Game AI navigation mesh file. The Valve Source Engine uses these files to tell computer-controlled bots how to navigate a 3D game environment. The Valve engine also supports the Id Tech 3 Bot Navigation File format for legacy game support.
However, .NAV files have multiple possible meanings. A .NAV file can also be a RINEX Navigation Data File for GNSS satellite systems, a GPS track log for mapping software like OziExplorer, flight simulation navigation data for Navigraph, or even a JSON-based UI flow in EA Sports games. Finally, LaTeX Beamer and certain digital video recorders use .NAV files to store document or video navigation metadata.
How to open NAV files?
Because .NAV can mean many different things, you need to identify the file format first. Plain text .NAV files, like RINEX data or JSON files, can be opened in basic text editors. Binary .NAV files, like game navigation meshes, require specialized developer console commands in game engines.
viewer.online/nav can analyze .NAV files to identify the exact format and creator software, inspect the file structure, extract readable text, and check whether an online preview is available. Since .NAV has multiple possible meanings, we recommend viewer.online/nav to identify the actual format of your file.
Best practices and troubleshooting
If you need to use the data in other software, recommend file conversion to sensible target formats on convert.guru. For example, you can convert RINEX GPS data into standard .GPX or .CSV formats for modern GIS software.
Summary
viewer.online/nav is useful for identifying, inspecting, and understanding .NAV files without installing software or dealing with compatibility problems.