SVG vs DXF for Silhouette Studio Basic Edition
Designs sold for cutting machines usually come as SVG, and Silhouette Studio’s free Basic edition won’t open it. DXF is the format Basic does read. Here is what that means for a layered design.
Short answer
Silhouette Studio’s free Basic edition doesn’t open SVG; opening SVG is part of the paid upgrades. Basic does open DXF. A DXF holds only cut lines, with no fill colours, so a multi-colour design is easiest to handle as one DXF per colour: open each file, cut it from its vinyl, done. If you have Designer Edition or higher, SVG keeps the colours in one file and is the more convenient choice.
Get Decaly Traces a picture into cut layers on your Android phone. Tracing is free, with no account.
The difference in one table
| SVG | DXF | |
|---|---|---|
| Studio Basic reads it | No, needs a paid edition | Yes |
| Fill colours | Kept | None: lines only |
| Several colours in one file | Yes, as groups | Lines only, so the colours can’t be told apart |
| Curves | True curves | Often stored as many short straight segments |
| Units | Can carry a real size | Has units, which some programs read and some ignore |
Edition features change; Silhouette America’s own edition comparison is the source to check for your version.
Why one DXF per layer
Put a three-colour design in one DXF and Studio shows you a tangle of outlines with no colour: which lines are the navy letters and which are the orange shadow? You would have to sort them by hand. With one file per colour there is nothing to sort. Each file is one sheet of vinyl.
That is how Decaly saves for Silhouette Studio. Pick Silhouette Studio under Cutting with, and Save writes one DXF for each layer, named after the picture and the colour, like whale-sky-blue.dxf and whale-royal-blue.dxf.
What is inside Decaly’s DXF files
- The R12 flavour of DXF: closed polylines, the oldest and most widely read kind of DXF, rather than newer entities some programs skip.
- Inches, at the cut size you set. Curves are cut into short segments that stay within a quarter of a pixel of the traced outline, so they still cut smooth.
- Holes, the inside of an “o” for example, are their own closed outlines inside their piece.
Decaly exports DXF, one file per layer, for Silhouette Studio. Studio versions differ, and we can’t test every one: if a Decaly DXF doesn’t open in your copy, or comes in at an unexpected size, write to machadowg@gmail.com with your Studio version and edition.
Lining layers up in Studio
Every DXF from one design shares the same origin, the picture’s bottom-left corner, so the layers line up with each other. Cut them one at a time on their own vinyl, then layer them bottom first. Whether the bottom colour runs under the others is decided before saving; see how to layer vinyl without overlapping.
Not using Studio?
For Cricut Design Space, an SVG is the better file because it keeps every colour in one upload (PNG to SVG for Cricut). Other cutting and laser software that opens SVG can use the SVG too.
Decaly: image to SVG, in layers you can cutOpen a picture on your Android phone and watch it trace into colour layers, free. Decaly Pro saves it as an SVG for Cricut Design Space, one DXF per layer for Silhouette Studio, or a PNG for Print Then Cut.
Get Decaly on Google Play