SVG or DXF file which one

[vaughanza (Vaughan Lundin)]

Hi Guys
Which file type ( SVG or DXF ) is better to use with lasers? Could give some tips which relate to working with Co2 laser ( Cutting & Engraving ) . Like to see the pro & cons of each file type?

Thanks in advance

[christopheryoder]

I’ve never noticed a difference. I would just use whichever one your software exports.

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

Here is a recent explanation of a few different file formats used for design work and which is best suited for the task at hand. Answering which is “Better” would be very subjective and much more information would be required to provide a reasonable answer to this.

Lightburn Gcode output is incorrect. Steps for curves in some places

SVG, AI, and PDF are better as “artistic formats”, and the way they represent curves is identical to how LightBurn stores them internally. We use cubic Bezier splines, which is pretty much standard for art. DXF files, because they’re made to be for CAD, store curves in a form called NURBS (non-uniform rational b-spline). They’re very flexible, but the math is crazy, and there’s no way to directly convert from NURBS to Bezier splines, so most non-CAD software (us included) converts them to lot…