Crossword Plotter is a tool for transcribing crossword puzzles - filled, unfilled, or partially filled - using a plotter machine.
It is designed for use with a HP7440A plotter (old model from the 80s without support for many commands), but should work with any plotter that accepts HPGL files.
The tool takes in a .puzzle file (see description below) and outputs an .hpgl file that can be fed into a plotter machine.
If you'd like to visualize what the final result will look like beforehand, I highly recommend the viz tool in this excellent collection of plotter tools.
.puzzle format files have the following structure:
First line: <puzzle_width> <puzzle_height>
Each subsequent line represents a row in the crossword puzzle, where # indicates a black square, . indicates an unfilled square, and any other character indicates a square filled with that character.
fivebyfive.puzzle (A partially-filled puzzle)
5 5
..L.#
ALEUT
..T..
LOGAN
#.O..
python3 draw_grid.py path/to/puzzle/file