Open DRL files in your browser
The file that tells a board maker's drill where every hole goes. Open one right here, every hole and slot at its size, with no CAM app. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Drop a board's Gerber and drill files together and it opens as it's made, from the top and from below. A file on its own shows its layer.
- Each file a layer • Hide one or show one alone
- The top and, mirrored beside it, the bottom
- Measure in millimeters • Its size, holes and copper layers
- Export • PNG and SVG
About DRL
Excellon Automation made the format for its drilling machines, and nearly every board maker's drill reads it. A board's drill files come beside its Gerbers, one for plated holes and often one for unplated ones.
A drill file is plain text: a header after M48 lists each tool with its diameter, then each tool's holes follow as X and Y coordinates, and G85 or routed moves cut slots. The header sets inches or millimeters and how the numbers are written, or leaves the reader to guess.
Filepeek reads it in your browser and draws every hole and slot at its size, sharp at any zoom. Drop it with the board's Gerbers and the holes go through the board, seen from the top and from below. Show details counts the holes, slots and tools and gives the smallest hole.
Excellon Drill File
.drl • .xln • .drd
Format
- MIME type
- application/x-excellon
- Made by
- Excellon Automation
Inside the file
- Tools
- Each drill's diameter, as T1, T2 and on
- Holes
- X and Y for each, under its tool
- Slots
- Cut by G85 or routed moves
- Units
- Inches or millimeters, set in the header
Opens in every browser
Browsers download drill files. Filepeek opens them in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, from KiCad, Altium, Eagle and EasyEDA alike.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open DRL
- WindowsKiCad's GerbView, free • gerbv, free
- MacKiCad's GerbView, free
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
Why are my holes in the wrong place?
A drill file can leave out its units or how its numbers are written, and a reader that guesses wrong scales every hole. Filepeek reads the header, the comments and attributes KiCad and Altium add, and the coordinates themselves, and dropped with the Gerbers you see at once whether the holes land on their pads.
Why are there two drill files?
Most CAD apps write plated holes, whose walls are copper, and unplated ones, like mounting holes, in files of their own. Drop both with the Gerbers and the Layers panel lists them as Plated holes and Unplated holes.
How small is the smallest hole?
Show details gives the smallest hole's diameter, which a board maker checks against its drills, with the number of holes, slots and tools.