Modifying the Shape of an Arduino - Building Open Source Hardware - page 100

(Source: Images CC-BY-SA Tiffany Tseng)
Figure 7.5 (a) Eagle PCB Power Tool's DXF Converter. (b) DXF Polyline Import ULP.
Those looking for a cross-platform, free method for importing DXFs into Eagle can
use a process identified by badcafe that involves converting your DXF file to a HP Graph-
ics Language (HPGL) file, running a C++ script to generate an Eagle script file, and ex-
ecuting the script in Eagle to create the board outline on a specified layer of your board. 8
The open source graphics editor Inkscape 9 is capable of exporting HPGL files from a
DXF file. The resulting HPGL file representing your board outline can then be used as an
input to a C++ program designed by badcafe to generate an Eagle script file. 10 After
downloading the source code hpg2eagle1.c, 11 you will need to compile it, being sure to
specify the units (metric or inches) used.
8 . http://badcafe.co.uk/2011/03/20/-dxf-hpgl-to-eagle-script-conversion/
9 . http://www.inkscape.org/
10 . http://badcafe.co.uk/2011/03/20/-dxf-hpgl-to-eagle-script-conversion/
11 . http://badcafe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/hpgl2eagle1.c
Finally, after generating an Eagle script file, you're ready to execute the script in
Eagle. The script will place the board outline on the selected layer, which you typically
want to be the Dimension layer. After clicking execute script ( Figure 7.6a ) and selecting
your script file, you should see your board outline in Eagle ( Figure 7.6b ).