I want to make 2D designs for laser cutting using MATLAB (for me this is convenient as I am an expert MATLAB user and can program the shapes I want based on calculations of for example thermal properties [please do not tell me to use a CAD program...]). A complication is that MATLAB can only generate the standard file formats (like eps and pdf) and the workshop I want to use needs dxf-files. I have tried several ways to solve this problem, but none of them have worked. I think that the best way is to follow a scheme like...
MATLAB --> eps-file --> CONVERSION SOFTWARE --> dxf-file --> WORKSHOP
I have tried several ways of converting eps (and pdf) files to dxf and have not found any conversion that works. In the best cases the files show the design, but it is always scaled with a factor. In one case the factor was 2.082 and in another case it was 0.016... (I check this by opening the files in AutoCAD). My guess is that there is a general problem here: the eps-file does not include a mm/cm-scale, it is just meant to show graphics that can be scaled up and down. So when I draw two circles with radii of 5 and 10 in MATLAB, save as eps, convert to dxf, and open in AutoCAD, the circles can have any radii, but one is always twice that of the other.
An alternative solution would be to have MATLAB directly generate dxf-files and there are actually programs for this, but they are all for 3D dxf and I have not found a way to make them work well. The closest I have come was when a directly generated dxf showed the correct shape, but only with points an the end of the lines, not with any lines.
I have also been thinking about writing my own MATLAB-program to generate 2D dxf-files, but I have not found the time to investigte that further.
I would appreciate any advice I can get on this!