Export SVG from LightBurn to Affinity Designer

I could not get any AI files to work with any program (any except Adobes). It is always an empty page.

I have tried to use RDworks, Inkscape and other programs to convert the svg files from Lightburn but with mixed results.

PDFExpert (app) could read the svg files and export (print) them but with a wrong dpi setting (printer dpi?). The objects have a different size.

Svg files from Lightburn imported with Inkscape and exported as different svg files does not work either. Sometimes objects are missing. And sometimes the lines had different thicknesses. There does that come from?
Missing objects sometimes reappear in Affinity Designer if they are changed in Inkscape but not always. Complicated objects with several layers are a pain with Inkscape.

Inkscape’s Eps or PDF export does work perfectly to import into Affinity Designer (and Photo).

A PDF export in Lightburn would be great. There seems to be something „portable“ in Adobes portable document files. :wink:

I can use LightBurn’s exported AI files (AI 3.0 format) in Illustrator and Vectric software. Modern AI files are actually PDF files, which is what software like InkScape expects - they ignore the embedded AI content and import the PDF preview. LightBurn’s SVG files work with InkScape, DeepNest, and Vectric software.

When you say “missing objects” and “line thickness” - LightBurn does not import text from anything, and stroke widths are ignored. LightBurn only uses the paths themselves, so if you want shapes with line thickness, stroked outlines, gradients, or other “paint” features, you would need to export as an image.

I do not need line thinkness. Almost all lines are cut lines and a couple engravings.

I have imported a wood puzzle into Affinity Desginer (eps) and from Affinity Designer into Lightburn (PDF) and made some changes. Later I needed that back in Designer.

The svg export from Lightburn is missing a couple of objects (that I made in Lightburn) after the import into Affinity Designer.

The import with Inkscape is showing them all but with different line thickness. Zoomed out they are almost invisible. In Designer I have checked for invisible objects but there are none.
That is strange because Lightburn does not know line thicknesses. Lightburn seems to remember those values from the original eps file.

I have changed all cut lines in Inkscape to the same thickness and exported that as svg. The import in Affinity Designer was the same. I have tried everything I could find in Inkscape to make the other objects to appear but with no success.

Only editing those objects made them visible. I think I have changed the size of one by mistake and that object reappeared in Designer. But that is no solution for the problem.

I have tried every svg export version and all the „svg optimize“ options in Inkscape but that did not change anything.

This explains my confusion - The topic here is “Export from Affinity to LightBurn” but you’re describing issues importing into Affinity. I thought you were the original poster.

LightBurn exports SVG files with a stroke width of 0.05mm because InkScape doesn’t have a “hairline” option that I’m aware of, or a way to do a fixed-width line, like “1 pixel regardless of zoom level”.

For the objects created in LightBurn that did not import, what were they?

Ah you have split the thread. Not necessary - it is the same in both directions.
Reason for my reply was that svg has problems and pdf is working.

In Lightburn I have drawn different tires for a wood Land Rover. Not much more than two circles. Four of them with a star pattern as the wheel.

“It is the same in both directions” - Not exactly - I wrote the importer for SVG files in LightBurn, and the exporter for SVG files from LightBurn, but I did neither of those for Affinity, and have never used that software, so I can’t tell you what’s going on when trying to import the data into Affinity. I have tested LightBurn’s SVG output with other software, including InkScape, Vectric Aspire, various web browsers, and SVGNest, and they work in all of those.

I cannot debug Affinity Designer, as I do not have it. You would need to send an exported file from LightBurn to them to ask why it doesn’t import.

Yes. Inkscape is the proof that Lightburn is correct.

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