Extract text from BXL files
To convert your BXL file to another format, you need Ultra_Librarian or other Cad software.
To convert other file formats to the "PCB Library Container" file type, you need software like Ultra_Librarian or a similar tool.
A .BXL file is predominantly a proprietary Ultra Librarian Binary File developed by Accelerated Designs (now part of EMA Design Automation). It functions as a vendor-neutral "shipping container" for electronic component data, housing schematic symbols, PCB footprints, and 3D models in a single package.
A common problem for engineers is that standard EDA tools like Altium Designer, Autodesk Eagle, or KiCad cannot open .BXL files natively. They act as locked archives that require a specific translation step - usually involving the Ultra Librarian Free Reader - to generate the usable library files for your specific software. This adds an annoying barrier when you simply want to place a downloaded component into your design.
For Altium users, the best workflow is converting the .BXL to a script that generates an .INTLIB. Eagle users need to convert it to LBR, while OrCAD users require OLB files. In rare corporate environments (approx. 15% of cases), a .BXL might be a Babtec Q.Reporter XML file used for quality management data exchange, which is text-based rather than binary and requires specific quality control software to interpret.
Convert.Guru analyzes your BXL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted LRF files.
If you want to convert BXL file to DWG, DXF, DGN, RVT, RFA, SKP, 3DM, STEP, IGES, SAT, X_T or X_B, you can use Ultra_Librarian or similar software from the "PCB Component Library Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SLDASM, DGN, PRT, IAM, X_B, CATPRODUCT, SLDPRT, RVT, ASM, DWG, CATPART or DXF files to BXL, try Ultra_Librarian or another comparable tool in the "PCB Component Library Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our BXL converter.