Convert an xTool .xcs file to SVG.

Three steps

1. Open the project with the button above, or drop it on the page. If it has more than one canvas, choose the one you want under the file name.
2. Switch off any layers you don't need with the coloured chips under the drawing. Hidden layers stay out of the SVG.
3. Press Download SVG. The Export section below lets you choose whether engraved areas come out filled or as outlines.

Can't xTool export SVG itself?

It can: xTool Creative Space has had an "Export as SVG" option in its File menu since version 1.5. That helps if you have it installed and signed in. This page is for everyone else, such as a LightBurn user who bought a design that only came as .xcs, someone on a locked-down work computer, or a Chromebook beside the laser. It also tells you what each colour was set to do, which a plain SVG from any source can't.

What ends up in the SVG

• One group per layer and setting, named like L1 Red (Cut), in the layer's colour from xTool. Inkscape lists the groups as layers.
• Millimetres throughout. Width and height are set in mm and one unit is one millimetre, so imports come in at the right size.
• Smooth curves. Circles, arcs and Bézier curves stay curved instead of being chopped into short lines.
• Lettering as outlines, taken from the letter shapes stored in the file, so no font is needed.
• Embedded pictures at the size and angle they were placed.
• The settings as data on each group, such as data-speed-mm-per-s and data-lines-per-cm, so the designer's values travel with the drawing.

Engraved areas

Shapes set to fill-engrave in xTool come out as filled shapes, joined so that overlaps cancel out the way they do on the laser: the middle of an O stays empty. Most laser programs treat a filled shape as an engraving and a hairline as a cut or score, so the intent survives. Choose "Outlines" under Export if you'd rather edit the paths.

Things that don't come across

QR codes and barcodes are drawn by xTool when the job runs, so the file holds no shape to export, and the page tells you when one is skipped. Objects hidden in xTool are left out, as xTool leaves them out of the job. xTool's picture adjustments, such as brightness or dithering, stay behind; the picture itself is included. Speed and power don't become settings in another program, because each program, and each machine, needs its own.

Need DXF?

xTool's software doesn't export DXF. The DXF export here, part of the unlock, writes one DXF layer per xTool layer in millimetres, for CAD, CNC routers and cutting services.