Vector editing · 23 tools

Cleaning and editing vector files for cutting

Resize, rotate, mirror, simplify, close and repair SVG and DXF files so the cutter gets clean, closed paths in real units.

Files that look fine in a design program fail on a cutting machine for boring reasons: a stroke that was never converted to a path, a path left open by 0.01 mm, two identical lines on top of each other that cut twice, a group transform the DXF exporter ignored, or a viewBox in pixels that turns a 300 mm sign into a 79 mm one. Each of those causes a wasted sheet or a jammed blade, and none of them is visible on screen.

The vector tools repair those faults one operation at a time. Every tool reads SVG, DXF and CorelDRAW CMX, flattens the geometry to polygons with micron precision, applies one change, and exports the result in the same units it read. You can chain them: clean, then close, then simplify, then resize, and the file stays exact through every step.

Try it here

SVG Editor

Open the full tool

Resize, rotate, mirror, simplify and clean in one place.

How a vector editing job runs

Check the size first

Drop the file into SVG Resizer or the Dimensions Checker. If the width reads 96 DPI pixels instead of millimetres, set the real width now; everything downstream depends on it.

Clean the geometry

SVG Cleaner flattens transforms, converts shapes and strokes to paths, drops dust and merges overlaps in one pass. Use the single-purpose tools when you want to see exactly what changed.

Fix path problems

Open Path Detector highlights gaps; Close Path Tool closes them within a tolerance; Path Joiner and Path Splitter reorganise segments; Path Direction Reverser fixes inside-out cuts on a CNC.

Simplify and export

Node Reduction and SVG Simplifier remove the redundant points a trace or a hand-drawn curve leaves behind. Export SVG, DXF or PLT, or copy the SVG straight into the design software.

All vector editing tools

23 tools · Resize, clean, simplify and repair SVG and DXF files.

SVG EditorResize, rotate, mirror, simplify and clean in one place.SVG ResizerScale to an exact width or height in real units.SVG CropperCrop a design to a rectangle.SVG RotatorRotate by any angle around the centre.SVG MirrorMirror horizontally for reverse application.SVG FlipperFlip vertically or horizontally.SVG CleanerFlatten transforms, drop dust and merge overlaps.SVG OptimizerFewer nodes, same shape — smaller, faster-cutting files.SVG SimplifierReduce nodes with a tolerance you control.Remove Duplicate PathsWeld stacked copies so the cutter passes once.Remove Tiny ObjectsDrop slivers and specks below a minimum size.Remove Hidden ObjectsMerge shapes so nothing hidden underneath gets cut.Flatten SVG TransformsBake every group transform into plain coordinates.Convert Shapes to PathsRects, circles and polygons become plain paths.Convert Stroke to PathTurn stroked lines into cut-able filled outlines.Path JoinerJoin touching shapes into one.Path SplitterBreak a compound path into separate shapes.Open Path DetectorFind paths that never close — laser cutters fill nothing there.Close Path ToolClose open paths whose ends are near each other.Path Direction ReverserReverse cut direction for every path.Node Reduction ToolReduce nodes for smoother, faster cutting.Vector Bounding Box ToolExact width, height and origin of any file.Vector Measurement ToolPath length, area and dimensions from a file.

On the machine

Units and the 96 DPI trap

An SVG with no physical width is treated as 96 pixels per inch by browsers, Inkscape and this site; Illustrator used 72. A 1000 px logo is therefore 264.6 mm here and 352.8 mm there. Set the real size in the resizer and the ambiguity disappears from the exported file.

Strokes are not cuts

A 2 mm stroke drawn as a line is a zero-width path to a cutter; the machine follows the centre line. Convert Stroke to Path turns the visual stroke into a closed outline that cuts as the shape you see.

Why curves become segments

Cutters move in straight lines and arcs; software approximates curves anyway. The tools flatten to 0.3 mm segments, which is finer than any blade or beam reproduces, and it makes booleans and offsets exact instead of approximate.

DXF versions

DXF is written as R2000 polylines, the dialect that LightBurn, RDWorks, ArtCAM, Aspire, Mach3 senders and plotter software all read without asking about splines or units.

What usually goes wrong

Trusting the on-screen size. Measure with the Dimensions Checker before every export.
Leaving live text in the file. The Unconverted Text Detector flags it; recreate it with the calligraphy tools or convert to curves in your editor.
Duplicate paths from copy-paste. Remove Duplicate Paths finds them; a laser cutting the same line twice chars the edge and burns time.
Tiny fragments from tracing. Remove Tiny Objects drops anything under the size you set; a 0.2 mm speck still makes the plotter lift and drop the blade.
Hidden objects under the artwork. Remove Hidden Objects deletes shapes fully covered by others, which would otherwise cut through the visible part.

Common questions

Does the SVG Editor replace Inkscape or CorelDRAW?

No. It does the production repairs those programs make awkward, quickly and without a licence: real-unit resize, clean, close, simplify, mirror and rotate. Drawing new artwork still belongs in a full editor.

What does the cleaner keep and what does it drop?

It keeps every visible closed shape and every open line longer than the tiny-object threshold, preserves holes as inner contours, and drops metadata, hidden objects, empty groups and zero-length segments. Colours are preserved as layer names so cut and engrave stay separated.

My DXF from AutoCAD imports huge or tiny

AutoCAD DXF files carry no unit unless $INSUNITS is set; the importer assumes millimetres. If the drawing was in inches or metres, use the resizer to set one known dimension and the rest scales with it.

Why does the Path Direction matter?

CNC controllers and some laser software use path direction to decide inside versus outside offsets and climb versus conventional milling. Reversing a path fixes a part that cuts undersize because the tool ran on the wrong side.