Why this comes up
Lots of laser owners run LightBurn, including many people with xTool machines. But designs are often sold or shared as xTool Creative Space projects, and LightBurn doesn't import .xcs. The LightBurn forum has thread after thread about it: an Etsy file that only came as .xcs, a makerspace project, a friend's coaster set. The usual answer is "ask for an SVG", which isn't always possible.
Two ways in
Free: SVG. Download the SVG and import it into LightBurn. Each xTool layer arrives in its own colour, so LightBurn sorts the shapes onto separate layers. You then set each layer's mode, speed and power yourself, using the table on this page as your guide.
Unlock: .lbrn2. Save a LightBurn project instead and open it straight in LightBurn. The layers are already made and filled in:
- One LightBurn layer per xTool layer and setting, given the nearest free colour in LightBurn's palette and named after the xTool layer, for example
Red Cut. - Modes mapped plainly: xTool's Cut and Score become Line layers, fill engraving becomes Fill, and picture engraving becomes Image.
- Settings carried over: speed in mm/s, power, passes, and the line interval worked out from xTool's lines per centimetre. Scan angle and cross-hatch come too.
- Pictures on Image layers at their placed size, and curves as real Bézier curves.
- Run order set to engrave first, then score, then cut, so parts don't drop out before they're engraved.
Check before you burn
The settings are the designer's, for their machine. An xTool P2 is a 55 W CO2 laser and an F1 is a small galvo with blue and infrared sources; the same percentage means something very different on yours. Treat the numbers as a starting point and run a test cut. Anything without a LightBurn equivalent, such as 3D engraving or knife cutting, arrives with its output switched off so nothing surprising runs. LightBurn has 30 layer colours, so a big material test grid with more settings than that has its extras merged, and the page says so.
Where it lands on the bed
The design's bottom-left corner is placed at 0,0 in LightBurn's coordinates. Move it where you want it, or use LightBurn's start-from options, before running.
Honest about testing
The .lbrn2 files are built to the structure of real LightBurn projects and re-open cleanly in this page's own LightBurn reader. They have not yet been opened in a licensed copy of LightBurn by us. If something looks off, the free SVG is the safe fallback, and we'd like to hear about it.