Kerfview

LightBurn file viewer · nothing uploaded

Open a LightBurn file without LightBurn.

Drop a .lbrn2 or .lbrn file here to see the design, every layer's speed and power, and its real size. There is nothing to install, no licence to buy, and the file stays on your computer.

or drop a .lbrn2 or .lbrn anywhere on the page

Sample project

hive-coasters.lbrn2

Job sheet

When this helps

LightBurn is paid desktop software, but its project files travel well beyond the people who own it. A design bought from an Etsy shop arrives as a .lbrn2. A makerspace shares its jig and test files that way. A colleague sends a job to check before it runs. And a work computer often won't let you install anything at all: in 2024 someone asked on the LightBurn forum for an online viewer for exactly that reason, and the answer then was that there wasn't one.

This page reads the file in your browser instead. Open it with the button above, or drag it onto the page.

What you'll see

  • The design, drawn in LightBurn's own layer colours, with a ruler in millimetres. Switch to the burn preview to see it roughly as it would look on birch plywood, walnut or clear acrylic.
  • Every layer, in the order LightBurn runs them: its name, mode (Line, Fill, Offset fill or Image), speed, power, passes and line interval.
  • The size of the whole design in millimetres and inches, so you know whether it fits your bed and your material.
  • Counts and lengths: how many shapes each layer has, and the total length of path the laser will follow.
  • A time estimate per layer, with its assumptions spelled out, so you can judge it for yourself.
  • Pictures embedded in the project, the preview LightBurn saved with it, and any notes the designer left.

What it can't do

It doesn't run a laser and it doesn't edit the design. Text that was never converted to an outline is drawn in a stand-in font, because the original font lives on the designer's computer, not in the file. And it can't tell you whether the saved speed and power suit your machine: a setting that cuts 3 mm plywood on a 60 W CO2 laser may barely mark it on a 10 W diode. Treat the numbers as the designer's starting point, then run a test on a scrap of the same material.

Other ways to look inside

LightBurn has a free trial, which is the right choice if you will run the job yourself in LightBurn soon. If you only need to see what's in the file, or get it into other software, that is what this page is for. Export an SVG for free to open in Inkscape, Illustrator, xTool Creative Space or the Glowforge app.

Is it safe to open a file here?

A LightBurn project is plain text (XML), and this page only reads it: nothing in the file is run as code. The page never sends your file anywhere: the only thing it tells our server about a file is its type and whether it opened, as the privacy page explains. You can check by opening your browser's network panel and then a file.

Layers and settings

In the order LightBurn runs them. Untick a layer to hide it here and leave it out of exports.

Layers in this project with their cut settings
ShowLayerModeSpeedPowerPassesIntervalShapesPath lengthTime, est.

Grey italic values aren't saved in the file. A .lbrn2 leaves out values that match LightBurn's defaults, so the documented defaults are shown (100 mm/s, 20% power, 0.1 mm interval, one pass). Speeds are stored in mm/s; hover a speed for mm/min. Times assume the head always moves at full speed, so real jobs take longer; see how they're worked out.

Export

Only the layers that are switched on are exported. Files are made in your browser.

Free

SVG

For Inkscape, Illustrator, xTool Creative Space, the Glowforge app and LightBurn itself. Layers become groups in LightBurn's colours, at real size in millimetres.

Fill layers as

Unlock

DXF

For CAD, CNC routers, cutting services and older laser software. R12 DXF, one DXF layer per LightBurn layer, millimetres, true circles. Pictures can't go in a DXF, so they're left out.

Part of the £6 unlock, coming soon.

Free

Pictures

Images embedded in the project, and the preview LightBurn saved with it, can be saved as PNG files on their own.

See the pictures

Pictures in this file

Shown at their own size. The original file name is what the designer's computer called the picture.

Job sheet

One printed page for whoever runs the laser: the design, every layer's settings, sizes, and the time estimate with its assumptions. Choose Save as PDF in the print window for a file.

Printing the job sheet is part of the £6 unlock, coming soon. The preview is free to look at.

One-time unlock

DXF, batch conversion and job sheets

Viewing, inspecting and SVG export are free and stay free. The unlock adds the things that save a workshop time.

  • DXF export of any project, layer by layer.
  • Batch conversion: drop many .lbrn2 files, or a ZIP of them, and get one ZIP back with SVG and DXF for each, plus a CSV of every layer's settings.
  • Printable job sheets with settings, sizes and time estimates.
  • One payment, no account, no subscription. Your files still never leave your computer.

£6 once

Coming soon

It isn't on sale yet, so there's nothing to pay today. Everything free on this page works now.

How sure is each number?

Read straight from the file

Layer names, modes, speeds, powers, passes and intervals are exactly what the file says, apart from values shown in grey italics, which the file leaves out and LightBurn fills with its defaults. Shape counts are exact.

Measured from the shapes

Sizes and path lengths are measured from the geometry, with curves followed to within a few thousandths of a millimetre. Text without a saved outline has no exact shape, so it isn't measured, and you'll see a note when that happens.

Estimated, and labelled

Times assume the head always moves at the layer's speed. Lines take length × passes ÷ speed; fills sweep each row from the first edge to the last at the line interval; images scan their whole frame. Acceleration, overscan and travel aren't counted, so real jobs take longer, sometimes a lot longer.