- Is there a free tool to check whether an SVG will cut before I load a mat?
- This page is one. Upload the SVG and it reports, in a few seconds, whether the file is a real vector or a picture in an SVG wrapper, whether any text is still live, whether shapes are strokes rather than fills, the node count against a budget of about 6,000, the smallest piece in real inches, and whether the file declares a real-world size. Free, no account, and the file is discarded within the request. It reads any standard SVG, whatever program made it.
- Does the checker work for Glowforge, xTool and other laser files?
- Mostly. The picture-in-a-wrapper, live-text, node-count, tiny-detail and missing-size checks apply to any machine that reads SVG. The stroke-only warning does not: a Glowforge, for example, treats a stroked line as a cut or score and a filled shape as an engrave, so a stroke-only file is normal for a laser and you can ignore that one line. The rules are written from a blade's point of view, because that is where a stroke-only shape fails.
- Why won't my SVG cut in Cricut Design Space?
- Almost always one of four things. The file is a raster image in an SVG wrapper, so there are no outlines to follow. The text was never converted to paths, so it substitutes or vanishes. The shapes are strokes with no fill, so the machine sees hairlines rather than regions. Or the detail is finer than a blade holds. Upload the file above and this page names which one it is.
- How can an SVG file not be a real vector?
- An SVG can embed a PNG or JPEG inside it. The file opens, previews correctly, and looks completely normal, but it contains a photograph rather than drawn outlines, so a cutting machine has nothing to follow. It is the most common thing sold as an SVG that is not one, and it is invisible until you try to cut it.
- What is a good node count for a cut file?
- Under about 6,000 for a single design. Past that Cricut Design Space starts feeling sluggish on the canvas and the blade can chatter on very fine detail. It will usually still cut, but slowly. Files traced from photographs routinely run to tens of thousands.
- How small is too small for a Cricut to cut?
- As a rule of thumb, individual pieces below about a quarter of an inch are unpleasant to weed and tend to lift with the excess vinyl. Below roughly four hundredths of an inch you are past what a blade holds reliably at all. Scaling the whole design up is usually easier than fighting it.
- Do you keep the files I upload?
- No. The file is read, measured, and discarded within the request. It is never stored, never displayed back to you, and never shown to anyone else. There is no account and no signup.