Kerfview

xTool .xcs viewer · nothing uploaded

Open an xTool .xcs file without xTool.

Drop a .xcs or .xs file here to see the design on the bed, every layer's power and speed, the material it was set up for and its real size. No xTool account, no install, and the file stays on this computer.

or drop a .xcs or .xs anywhere on the page. LightBurn files open too.

Sample project

peak-coaster.xcs

Job sheet

Who gets sent .xcs files

xTool Creative Space, the free software that runs xTool's lasers, saves its projects as .xcs. Plenty of those files end up with people who don't run it. Etsy shops and design marketplaces sell .xcs downloads. Makerspaces share them for their xTool machines. And people who own a different laser, or who drive their xTool from LightBurn, keep being handed one. On the LightBurn forum the same question comes up again and again: how do I open this .xcs? LightBurn can't read it.

This page reads it for you in the browser. Open the file with the button above or drag it onto the page. A sample coaster is loaded already so you can see what you'll get.

What the viewer shows

  • The design at its real size, in the layer colours used in xTool, with millimetre or inch rulers. The burn preview gives a rough idea of how it looks on ply, walnut or acrylic.
  • Each layer's job: whether it cuts, scores, fill-engraves or engraves a picture, with the power, speed, passes and line density the designer saved. xTool stores density in lines per centimetre, and the table shows the line gap in millimetres beside it.
  • The machine and material when the file names them, such as an xTool S1 and 3 mm basswood plywood, with its thickness.
  • Every canvas. An xTool project can hold several canvases, like the pages of a notebook. Pick one from the list under the file name.
  • Text exactly as designed. xTool keeps the outline of every letter in the file, so lettering looks right even without the designer's font.
  • Pictures and the preview stored in the project, which you can save as image files.

Settings are per object in xTool

In LightBurn, settings belong to a layer. In xTool, each object carries its own, so two shapes of the same colour can have different powers. The table groups objects by colour and by setting, so each row is one real job. A material test grid can therefore show dozens of rows, one per square. Values the file doesn't hold appear as a dash rather than a guess.

What it can't tell you

Power is a percentage of the designer's laser. 60% on a 40 W xTool S1 is far more than 60% on a 10 W diode, and an F1's infrared and blue lasers differ again. Use the numbers to understand what each layer is for, then run a test on a scrap of your own material. This page doesn't edit the design or run a laser.

Newer .xs files

Recent versions of xTool's software, now called xTool Studio, save projects as .xs, which is a ZIP of the same kind of data. Those open here too.

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 their own 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 layer, millimetres, true circles. Pictures can't go in a DXF, so they're left out.

Part of the £6 unlock, coming soon.

Unlock · xTool files

LightBurn project

Turns an xTool .xcs or .xs into a .lbrn2 that LightBurn opens directly: one LightBurn layer per xTool layer and setting, with speed, power, passes and line interval filled in, and pictures on Image layers.

Part of the £6 unlock, coming soon.

Free

Pictures

Images embedded in the project, and the preview LightBurn or xTool 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, LightBurn conversion, batch 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.
  • xTool .xcs and .xs files saved as LightBurn .lbrn2 projects, settings included.
  • Batch conversion: drop many .lbrn2 or .xcs files, or a ZIP of them, and get one ZIP back with SVG and DXF for each (and .lbrn2 for xTool files), 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.