How can I import a PC board outline and component placement from a CAD program

"peter" <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> wrote in message

news:h31a7r$p51$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

I'm designing a front panel for a project I'm playing with, the front

panel is pretty tight in terms of tolerance due to restricted space so the

PCB tghat fits to the back of it must be accurately shaped and fitted.

 

I have a finished CAD model of the front panel and from that I have an

outline for the PC board that I want to import into Eagle.

 

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to save

me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

 

Any help appreciated (I'm using Alibre CAD if it makes any diffference)

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

I believe that I saw a ULP that allows import of a DXF CAD file into Eagle.

Check in the Eagle download area both under 'ULPs' and 'Miscellaneous'.

There are several utilities. I can't vouch for any of them, not having tried

them yet. I will have to do something similar to your work at one point. By

all means, please post your experiences.

Cheers - Oppie

Oppie wrote:

 

"peter" <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> wrote in message

news:h31a7r$p51$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

I'm designing a front panel for a project I'm playing with, the front

panel is pretty tight in terms of tolerance due to restricted space so

the PCB tghat fits to the back of it must be accurately shaped and

fitted.

 

I have a finished CAD model of the front panel and from that I have an

outline for the PC board that I want to import into Eagle.

 

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to

save me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

 

Any help appreciated (I'm using Alibre CAD if it makes any diffference)

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

 

I believe that I saw a ULP that allows import of a DXF CAD file into Eagle.

 

Check in the Eagle download area both under 'ULPs' and 'Miscellaneous'.

There are several utilities. I can't vouch for any of them, not having

tried them yet. I will have to do something similar to your work at one

point. By all means, please post your experiences.

 

Cheers - Oppie

As it happens a little more digging and I found what appears to be an

almost perfect solution...

http://www.micromagicsystems.com/#/dxf-converter/4523812840

Its free and seems to work..

The only "almost perfect" part is that its a Windows program and I'

m Linux based... however, it works perfectly under Wine on Ubuntu, so

its perfect enough for me.

I have not tried this with my actual task yet, just a couple of DXF's I

had lying around and the resulting .scr files looked convincing, but I

have not yet tried it out. (my CAD package is on teh windows partition

of this machine (it definetely doesn;t work under Wine, or even proper

virtual machines) and I have not gotten around to moving the files

around and trying it for real..yet.

Hello Peter,

try the EAGLE PCB Power Tools (downloadarea ==> Misc) for importing DXF into

EAGLE.

Best Regards

Falk

"peter" <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> schrieb im Newsbeitrag

news:h31a7r$p51$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

I'm designing a front panel for a project I'm playing with, the front

panel is pretty tight in terms of tolerance due to restricted space so the

PCB tghat fits to the back of it must be accurately shaped and fitted.

 

I have a finished CAD model of the front panel and from that I have an

outline for the PC board that I want to import into Eagle.

 

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to save

me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

 

Any help appreciated (I'm using Alibre CAD if it makes any diffference)

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

Wasn't the Eagle Power tools a third party program that required a paid

license?

My predecessor had used version 4 power tools. I believe that the one in the

miscellaneous download area is one for Eagle 5. I've not tried it yet.

"Falk Stricker" <falk.stricker@gmx.de> wrote in message

news:4a558f61$0$18642$4d4ebb8e@businessnews.de.uu.net...

Hello Peter,

 

try the EAGLE PCB Power Tools (downloadarea ==> Misc) for importing DXF

into EAGLE.

 

Best Regards

Falk

 

"peter" <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> schrieb im Newsbeitrag

news:h31a7r$p51$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

I'm designing a front panel for a project I'm playing with, the front

panel is pretty tight in terms of tolerance due to restricted space so

the PCB tghat fits to the back of it must be accurately shaped and

fitted.

 

I have a finished CAD model of the front panel and from that I have an

outline for the PC board that I want to import into Eagle.

 

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to save

me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

 

Any help appreciated (I'm using Alibre CAD if it makes any diffference)

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

peter <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> wrote:

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to

save me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

I use the dxf2scr from CadSoft's site:

ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/misc/dxf2scr.zip

-Chris

--

peter wrote:

Oppie wrote:

 

"peter" <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> wrote in message

news:h31a7r$p51$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

I'm designing a front panel for a project I'm playing with, the front

panel is pretty tight in terms of tolerance due to restricted space

so the PCB tghat fits to the back of it must be accurately shaped and

fitted.

 

I have a finished CAD model of the front panel and from that I have

an outline for the PC board that I want to import into Eagle.

 

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to

save me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

 

Any help appreciated (I'm using Alibre CAD if it makes any diffference)

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

 

I believe that I saw a ULP that allows import of a DXF CAD file into

Eagle.

 

Check in the Eagle download area both under 'ULPs' and

'Miscellaneous'. There are several utilities. I can't vouch for any of

them, not having tried them yet. I will have to do something similar

to your work at one point. By all means, please post your experiences.

 

Cheers - Oppie

 

As it happens a little more digging and I found what appears to be an

almost perfect solution...

 

http://www.micromagicsystems.com/#/dxf-converter/4523812840

 

Its free and seems to work..

 

The only "almost perfect" part is that its a Windows program and I'

m Linux based... however, it works perfectly under Wine on Ubuntu, so

its perfect enough for me.

 

I have not tried this with my actual task yet, just a couple of DXF's I

had lying around and the resulting .scr files looked convincing, but I

have not yet tried it out. (my CAD package is on teh windows partition

of this machine (it definetely doesn;t work under Wine, or even proper

virtual machines) and I have not gotten around to moving the files

around and trying it for real..yet.

 

Just to close the loop, the dxf2scr.exe  from here ...

http://www.micromagicsystems.com/#/dxf-converter/4523812840

tool works great and its free.

Peter

If you have licensed the EAGLE PCB Power Tools 4.x you can also use the

EAGLE PCB Power Tools Version 5.x because the lifetime update right. The

version 5 works with EAGLE 4.x as well as EAGLE version 5.x.

Best Regards

Falk Stricker

"Oppie" <Oppie@saynotospam.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag

news:h34r3c$q6o$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

Wasn't the Eagle Power tools a third party program that required a paid

license?

My predecessor had used version 4 power tools. I believe that the one in

the miscellaneous download area is one for Eagle 5. I've not tried it yet.

 

"Falk Stricker" <falk.stricker@gmx.de> wrote in message

news:4a558f61$0$18642$4d4ebb8e@businessnews.de.uu.net...

Hello Peter,

 

try the EAGLE PCB Power Tools (downloadarea ==> Misc) for importing DXF

into EAGLE.

 

Best Regards

Falk

 

"peter" <peter.a.wilson@prosysinstruments.nodotcom> schrieb im

Newsbeitrag news:h31a7r$p51$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

I'm designing a front panel for a project I'm playing with, the front

panel is pretty tight in terms of tolerance due to restricted space so

the PCB tghat fits to the back of it must be accurately shaped and

fitted.

 

I have a finished CAD model of the front panel and from that I have an

outline for the PC board that I want to import into Eagle.

 

How can I import a DXF or some other common CAD format into EAGLE to

save me having to redraw the dimensions from another drawing ?

 

Any help appreciated (I'm using Alibre CAD if it makes any diffference)

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

peter wrote on Tue, 14 July 2009 10:48

peter wrote:

... actually quite a lot of stuff ...

 

Just to close the loop, the dxf2scr.exe  from here ...

http://www.micromagicsystems.com/#/dxf-converter/4523812840

tool works great and its free.

Peter

.. as long as you can live with roundoff errors to the nearest mil :frown:

(on average 12.7 microns).

Unfortunately, I can't.

Not with parts getting smaller and tolerances getting tighter all the

time...

Leo

--

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