Deep Dives
Glowforge & LightBurn SVG Settings: Cut, Score & Engrave Right
Published August 2026 · 7 min read
Key takeaways
- Cut = hairline stroke, Score = slightly heavier stroke, Engrave = filled region — the SVG just needs clean separate paths per operation.
- Color-count the design to your operations: 2–3 colors covers most jobs, one per cut/score/engrave layer.
- High smoothing means fewer nodes, which keeps LightBurn fast and shortens the job.
- Always remove the background before tracing, or the rectangle becomes a cut line around your whole design.
You traced a clean SVG and imported it — but the laser engraved the whole thing instead of cutting the outline. Nine times out of ten that is a settings mismatch, not a bad file. This guide covers how Glowforge and LightBurn interpret an SVG and the exact knobs to turn so strokes cut, scores score, and fills engrave.
How a laser reads an SVG
Laser software maps geometry to operations. The rule of thumb:
- Stroke (hairline) → cut line, where the beam follows the path and through-cuts.
- Stroke (heavier) → score line, a lighter surface mark used for folds and details.
- Fill → engrave, where the region is shaded by rastering the beam across it.
So the single most important thing your SVG needs is clean, separate paths per operation. Veclify's tracing gives you exactly that: each color lands on its own layer you can assign a mode to.
| Path type | Glowforge | LightBurn |
|---|---|---|
| Hairline stroke | Cut | Cut layer |
| Thicker stroke | Score | Score layer |
| Filled shape | Engrave | Fill layer |
Pick power and speed per layer
Once each color is its own layer, set power and speed:
- Cut — higher power, moderate speed. Too slow burns the edge; too fast leaves the cut incomplete.
- Score — lower power than a cut, so it marks without through-cutting.
- Engrave — power sets darkness, speed sets coverage; raise resolution for finer detail at the cost of time.
Run a small test on scrap before committing a full sheet. A 100% scale preview in LightBurn also shows node density — if it crawls, raise smoothing and re-trace.
Color count = operation count
Every color in the SVG becomes a separate layer you assign a mode to. Keep it deliberate:
| Colors | Use it for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Single outline cut |
| 2 | Cut + score, or cut + engrave |
| 3 | Cut + score + engrave shade |
First-job mistakes to avoid
- Background not removed — the rectangle traces as a shape and the laser cuts a box around your design. Remove it before tracing.
- Too many colors — a 12-color trace becomes 12 layers of tiny regions; the job runs long and weeding is a nightmare.
- Thin strokes — under ~1 mm at final size may not cut cleanly; thicken or simplify.
- Ignoring node count — thousands of nodes make LightBurn sluggish; raise smoothing.
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Whole thing engraved | Separate strokes from fills before import |
| Box around design | Remove background before tracing |
| Slow preview / job | Raise smoothing, re-trace |
Common questions
Q: Do I need a specific SVG version for my laser?
No. Plain SVG 1.1 with clean paths works in Glowforge, xTool, and LightBurn. If your workflow prefers it, Veclify also exports DXF and EPS with no extra step.
Q: Can one SVG do cut and engrave at once?
Yes. Put the outline as a hairline stroke (cut) and the shading as a fill (engrave), each on its own color layer, and assign modes in the software. The laser runs both in one pass.
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