Kerfview

LightBurn file viewer · nothing uploaded

Use a LightBurn file with your xTool.

Open the .lbrn2 here, download it as an SVG for xTool Creative Space, and keep the designer's layer settings in front of you while you set up the job.

or drop a .lbrn2 or .lbrn anywhere on the page

Sample project

hive-coasters.lbrn2

Job sheet

The quick route

  1. Open the .lbrn2 above. Check its size in millimetres against your material and your machine's working area.
  2. Download it as an SVG. Each LightBurn layer keeps its colour, so cut lines, score lines and engravings are easy to tell apart.
  3. Import the SVG into xTool Creative Space, then set each group of shapes to cut, score or engrave.
  4. Use the layer table on this page to see what the designer intended for each colour, then set speed and power for your own machine.

Many xTool machines can also be run from LightBurn itself. If you already have LightBurn set up for your xTool, open the .lbrn2 there instead. This page is for when you don't.

Reading the designer's settings

LightBurn stores speed in millimetres per second, whatever units the designer saw on screen, so the table shows mm/s and mm/min side by side. Power is a percentage of the designer's laser, not yours. A 40 W CO2 and a 10 W diode at "50%" are very different beams. Use the numbers to understand the intent: which layer cuts through, which one only marks, and which one engraves a filled area. Then find your own values with a material test.

The mode tells you what each layer does:

  • Line follows the outline. With high power and low speed it cuts through, and with low power it scores.
  • Fill engraves the area inside closed shapes, row by row, at the line interval shown.
  • Image engraves a picture, usually dithered.
  • Tool layers never burn. They mark the material edge or alignment guides.

Things that commonly go wrong

The size is off by 25.4 times. The SVG is in millimetres. If your software asks, choose millimetres on import.

Engravings arrive as outlines. Under Export, keep "Fill layers as filled shapes", so engraved areas arrive filled.

Text looks different. If the designer converted their text to outlines (LightBurn saves an outline by default), it comes across exactly. If not, install the font named in the file, or convert it to a path in your design software.

The design is bigger than your bed. Check the size above before you buy material. The ruler around the design is in millimetres.

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

Part of the £6 unlock, coming soon.

Free

Pictures

Images embedded in the project, and the preview LightBurn 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, batch conversion 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.
  • Batch conversion: drop many .lbrn2 files, or a ZIP of them, and get one ZIP back with SVG and DXF for each, 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.