Free engraving patterns: SVG, PNG and DXF

Fills, borders and motifs

The five fills are square tiles, 100 mm across, that repeat on every side: place copies exactly 100 mm apart, up and across, and the pattern runs on without a seam. Cover an area larger than the piece you are engraving and trim the pattern to its outline in your software. The fish scale, diaper and star fills are single connected pieces; the basket weave and the herringbone are fields of separate bars, which is how those patterns are meant to be.

The borders are strips 100 mm long whose ends are cut at the same point in the repeat, so they join end to end. The engine turned pattern and the sunburst are round and do not repeat: scale them to the lid, coaster or watch back they are for. The wheat, grapes, oak and floral spray are single motifs.

Metal, glass and wood

On metal, a fibre laser or a rotary engraver follows fine detail, so the fills can be scaled down to a 25 mm repeat for a lighter case, a buckle or a knife scale. On glass, engrave the wheat and the grapes from 50 mm tall: frosted shapes read best when they are bold, and a glass curves, so keep a motif under a third of the way round. To see it the right way from the front when you engrave the back, mirror it first.

On wood, the grain breaks up thin lines, so keep the fills at their 100 mm size or larger and prefer the basket weave, the diaper and the leaf border, whose parts are 2 mm wide or more. Each design page lists its narrowest part at 100 mm.

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