Free water tracker SVG files

Fitting a tracker to your bottle

A tracker works on any clear or translucent bottle with a straight side. Fill the bottle, then measure from the water line down to the inside of the base: that is the height to cut the column, so that the first time sits at the full line and the last near the bottom. Bottles differ a good deal, so measure your own: many 1 litre sports bottles have somewhere between 150 and 200 mm of straight side. Scale the file to that height with the proportions locked.

The times are spaced evenly, which suits drinking at a steady rate. The marks then mean “the level should be at or below here by this time”. If you refill at midday, cut the column to half the height and read it twice.

Cutting and applying

Use permanent vinyl and wash the bottle by hand. At 190 mm tall the numerals of the seven-time tracker are about 16 mm high, an easy size to weed. Leave the letters on their backing, cover the whole column with one strip of transfer tape, and stand the bottle upright while you line the tape up with a seam or a strip of masking tape, so the column runs straight down and not round the curve.

The volume scales are true only for a bottle whose width does not change between the base and the full line. On a bottle with a waist or a taper, mark it by pouring in a measured amount at a time instead, and use the loose figures.

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