Free brain SVG files

Folds that stay in one piece

A brain is mostly folds, and folds drawn as crossing lines fall apart when they are cut. Here each fold is a groove about 1.3 mm wide that starts at the edge and wanders inwards without meeting another, so the shape between the folds is always joined. On vinyl, weed each groove from its open end at the edge.

The side view and the front view cut well at 100 mm and above. For anything smaller use the brain icon, whose folds are 2.5 mm wide, about twice as broad. The outline version is a single joined line, which suits pens, foil and engraving.

For teaching

The layered model shows the four lobes of the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brain stem as separate coloured pieces on a dark backing. Cut each from a different card and let pupils assemble it like a jigsaw: the frontal lobe at the front, the parietal lobe behind it on top, the temporal lobe underneath and the occipital lobe at the back. The boundaries are simplified, as they are in any school diagram.

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