Free 3D teacup SVG files

How the cup goes together

The wall of the cup is a slice of a ring. Its short edge is as long as the base is round and its long edge as long as the rim is round, so it rolls into a cone with nothing to trim. Glue the end tab inside, fold the teeth along the foot inwards and lower the base disc on to them. Where the base disc is drawn inside the curl of the wall it is still a separate piece: it is only put there to save card.

The handle is cut twice. Glue the two ears back to back but leave the tabs on their ends free, push the tabs through the two slots in the wall, bend them apart inside the cup and glue them down. The slots are opposite the seam, so the join in the wall ends up on the far side from the handle. The saucer is a flat disc, the well, inside a rim that rises as it runs out: the rim is nearly a whole ring with a tab that closes it, and its teeth are glued under the well.

Sizes and card

The files are 100 mm on their longer side, so scale them up before cutting. The classic cup, cut 195 mm tall, is 74 mm across the rim, 40 mm across the base and 46 mm tall, on a saucer 82 mm across, and its sheet is 195 by 191 mm, which fits A4 or Letter card. That is a little smaller than most china teacups; scale the file to 120 percent for one of full size, on a 12 inch mat. Scale the whole file, never one piece: the wall, the discs and the slots only fit each other at the same scale.

Card of 180 to 230 gsm is right: it curls into the cup without creasing and the handle holds its shape when doubled. Draw the wall over the edge of a table before gluing. Patterned paper glued to plain card before cutting gives a printed cup. These are decorations and gift holders: they will not hold a drink. Every size here is worked out from the drawing, not from a test cut, so try one in plain paper first.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions