DXF to SVG Converter
Take a part, gasket, bracket or floor plan drawn in CAD and open it where CAD files are not welcome: a browser, a design app or a laser and cutting-machine program that prefers SVG. The geometry keeps its real size and its layer colors.
CAD Converter
or drop DWG, DXF, DWF … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Model space is the full drawing. All layouts exports each paper-space sheet as its own page, as set up in AutoCAD.
Fit to page scales the drawing to fill the sheet. Actual size keeps drawing units 1:1 (1 mm in the drawing = 1 mm on paper) and may span a larger page.
Same as source uses the size set in each layout. A1 and A0 are the usual plotter sheets for architectural drawings.
Auto turns the page to match the drawing's longer side.
Monochrome prints every line black, like plotting with a monochrome.ctb style — best for printed plans on white paper.
White suits printing. Black looks like the AutoCAD drawing area; transparent works for placing the drawing in other documents (not available in JPG).
300 DPI is print quality; 150 is enough for screens. At A1 and 600 DPI an image is 14,000 px wide, so higher values make very large files.
Only used when the input is a photo or scan (JPG, PNG). Outline draws the edges of shapes, good for logos and laser cutting; centreline draws single lines through strokes, good for scanned line drawings and plotters.
Pixels darker than this become lines. Raise it if faint lines are missing, lower it if background noise turns into shapes.
Higher values give fewer, smoother curves; lower values follow the pixels more closely but create more points.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the DXF files
Add up to 20 drawings, 95 MB each. Any DXF version from Release 12 to the current one is read; DWG works too if that is what you have.
- 2
Check scale and strokes
Scale is set to Actual size (1:1), so 50 mm in the drawing is 50 mm in the SVG. Use line weights is off, which gives thin, even strokes that cutting software treats as paths to follow.
- 3
Convert to SVG
Press Convert to SVG and download. Import the file and measure one known dimension before you cut anything.
DXF stores coordinates in drawing units such as millimeters or inches; SVG stores them in user units of 1/96 inch, so a good DXF to SVG conversion is mostly about getting that unit translation right.
DXF units and SVG units: getting the scale right
Autodesk introduced DXF with AutoCAD in 1982 as a documented exchange format, and it still publishes the DXF Reference with each release. A DXF line from 0,0 to 100,0 is 100 units long, but the unit itself is a setting. Since AutoCAD 2000 the header can carry $INSUNITS: 1 means inches, 4 millimeters, 5 centimeters, 6 meters, and 0 means unitless. Release 12 files, still the most common output of older CAM and cutting tools, have no such field at all.
SVG has its own convention. Its width and height can carry units such as mm or in, and bare numbers are CSS pixels, 96 to the inch. With Actual size (1:1) the converter writes the drawing size in real units, so a 100 mm part stays 100 mm in Inkscape, Illustrator or a laser program.
DXF, millimeters
100 mm
Line from 0,0 to 100,0 with $INSUNITS = 4
SVG at 1:1
377.95 u
Same 100 mm, written as 96 user units per inch
Line weights and layer colors in DXF to SVG
Fit to page is there for previews, where the drawing should fill the frame rather than match a ruler. Use line weights is off because lasers and cutters read a stroke as a path, not as a width to burn; a 0.5 mm CAD line weight would only make the preview thicker. Turn it on when the SVG is a picture for the web and line hierarchy matters.
DXF color 7 is drawn black on white and white on black in CAD; with a transparent background it is normally shown dark so it stays visible on a white page. For the reverse trip, SVG to DXF writes a DXF at the AutoCAD version you pick.
DXF
Drawing Exchange Format
DXF is a CAD data exchange format published by Autodesk in 1982. It describes drawing geometry and layers in a documented text (or binary) structure, so many programs that cannot read DWG can read DXF. It is widely used for laser cutters, CNC routers, plasma cutters and vinyl cutters. DXF files are larger than DWG and may lose some advanced features during exchange.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1982 · Autodesk
SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics
SVG is an XML-based vector format standardised by the W3C in 2001. Instead of pixels it describes shapes, paths and text, so it stays sharp at any size and is usually tiny for logos and icons. It supports transparency, CSS styling, scripting and animation, and every browser renders it natively. SVG is unsuitable for photographs, and complex illustrations can become slow to render. Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma and browsers can open and edit it.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- Yes
- Introduced
- 2001 · W3C
DXF to SVG carries CAD geometry into browsers, design apps and laser or cutting-machine software that prefer SVG, such as the Glowforge app, keeping real-world size and the stroke colors that mark cut and engrave layers.
Where a DXF converted to SVG is used
Glowforge and browser-based lasers
Upload the SVG instead of the DXF; stroke colors become separate steps you can set to cut, score or engrave.
Cricut and Silhouette
Both import SVG. Close every outline in CAD first, since an open path is cut as a line and not as a shape.
Inkscape, Illustrator and Figma
Edit a CAD outline with design tools, add artwork or lettering, then export it for print or cutting.
Websites and documentation
Embed the SVG of a part drawing in a product page or manual; it scales with the screen and stays sharp.
DXF to SVG questions
Why does my DXF come out 25.4 times too big or too small in SVG?
The drawing was made in inches and read as millimeters, or the reverse. Newer DXF files record their unit in a header field called $INSUNITS; files without it, including every Release 12 DXF, leave the reader to guess. Check the unit setting where you import the SVG, or rescale by 25.4 once.
Which laser programs want SVG rather than DXF?
The Glowforge app works from SVG, PDF and images and does not open DXF, so a DXF part has to be converted first. LightBurn and most other laser software read both; there SVG is simply the format designers already have.
Do DXF layers survive in the SVG?
The colors that distinguish them do, so a red cut layer and a blue engrave layer stay red and blue. Laser programs such as LightBurn assign layers by stroke color on import. Layer names and on/off states are CAD concepts that the SVG does not reproduce.
Will circles and arcs stay smooth?
Yes. Circles and arcs become SVG curves rather than pixel steps, so they cut and print smoothly at any zoom. Splines from newer DXF versions are converted into equivalent Bézier curves.
Can I put a DXF drawing on a website?
Converting to SVG is the way to do it: browsers display SVG directly and keep it crisp on high-density screens. For a fixed-size preview image instead, DXF to PNG gives a bitmap at the resolution you choose.
What about text and dimensions from the DXF?
They are drawn in the SVG with a standard font where the original used AutoCAD SHX fonts, so spacing can shift slightly. For a cut file, delete dimension layers in CAD first; otherwise the laser will try to cut the numbers.