Got a design as SVG and want it as an xTool Creative Space project? This page reads the colours
of the drawing and writes an .xcs file with one layer per colour, each already set to cut,
score or engrave, at the size the SVG specifies.
How to convert SVG to XCS
- Prepare the SVG. Draw cut lines in red, score lines in any other stroke colour, and give areas to engrave a fill. Convert text to paths first (in Inkscape: Path → Object to Path).
- Upload the
.svgfrom Inkscape, Illustrator, a design shop or any other source. - Under More options, choose your xTool machine; if you skip it, the file targets a D1 Pro.
- Download the
.xcs, open it in xTool Creative Space, set power and speed for each layer, and test on scrap.
How colours become layers
| In the SVG | In the .xcs |
|---|---|
| Red stroke, no fill | Cut |
| Other stroke colour, no fill | Score |
| Filled shape | Fill engraving |
| Embedded photo or bitmap | Bitmap engraving |
"Red" means a clearly red colour such as #ff0000; dark red or orange strokes count as score. A
white fill behind an outline is treated as background and ignored. Each distinct colour gets its
own layer, so two blues give two score layers you can set differently.
An SVG carries no laser settings, so the layers start with xTool's defaults and the result warns you to fill in power and speed. The exception is an SVG made by this converter: its layers keep the power, speed and passes they were exported with.
Size
Dimensions come from the SVG's width, height and viewBox, in mm, cm, inches, points or pixels. Plain pixel values are read at 96 per inch, or at 72 for files saved by Adobe Illustrator, the convention each program uses.
What doesn't carry over
- Text that is still text can't be written into an
.xcs; it is left out, with a warning. - Clipping masks and gradients aren't applied (gradients become a flat colour), and stroke width is ignored because the laser follows the centre line.
- Only images embedded in the SVG are used; linked image files are not.
For LightBurn projects, use LightBurn to XCS, which keeps the layer settings already stored in the file.
More about what this tool reads and writes: xTool XCS ↔ LightBurn & SVG Converter.