Split a cut file too big for your laser bed or Cricut mat into tiles, free
Free and in your browser, with nothing uploaded: add an SVG or DXF, pick your machine or type its bed size, and get every tile as a cut file. Seams avoid your lines where they can, with puzzle knobs, straight or overlap joints, and each tile named A1, A2 and so on.
Faster with the free Chrome extension: right-click any picture on a website and send it straight to the tile splitter. Add to Chrome · what it does
Extension installed. Right-click any picture on a website and choose Makerfern → Open this picture in… to bring it here.
A big design, cut on a small bed
A sign, a wall map or a stencil bigger than your laser bed or your Cricut mat has to be cut in parts. Doing that by hand means drawing the seams, cutting the design along them, adding joints and moving each part onto the bed, then doing it all again when the size changes. This tool does those steps in one go, at the size you set.
What you get
- Every tile as a cut file, SVG or DXF, at true size, placed at the corner of a bed-sized page. One ZIP holds them all.
- Seams that dodge your design: between letters and shapes when there is room, and never a sliver along a line.
- Joints: puzzle knobs where there is solid material, straight cuts, or an overlap strip for vinyl and paper.
- Tile names on their own layer, and an assembly map of the whole design.
How to use it
- Add your SVG or DXF, or try the sample sign, and set the finished width.
- Pick your machine, or type the area your bed really cuts, and a margin.
- Choose the joint. For puzzle knobs, set the knob size: bigger knobs hold better in thick material.
- Download the ZIP, cut each tile with the bed's top-left corner as its zero, and put them together with the map.
What it does not do
- It does not change your design: lines are cut where seams cross them, and nothing is smoothed or moved.
- It does not allow for kerf. Puzzle knobs fit snugly in most wood and acrylic; if yours are tight, sand them lightly or make the knobs bigger.
- It does not give cutting settings: those depend on your machine and material, so follow their makers and do a test cut.
Questions
Where do the seams go?
The tool tries every position along each seam that still keeps the tiles inside your bed, and picks the one that crosses the fewest lines of your design, away from lines that run alongside it. So a seam goes between letters or shapes when there is room, rather than through them. When a seam has to cross something, it crosses it straight.
Where do the puzzle knobs go?
Only where the seam runs through solid material: inside the closed outline of your design, clear of every other line by more than half a knob, and away from the corners where seams meet. All the knobs on one seam point the same way, so each tile grows by one knob on one side only. When a seam has no room for a knob, it stays straight, and the tool says so.
What size is my bed?
Use the area your machine actually cuts, which is smaller than its lid or its mat. The presets are the makers' published cut areas:
- Cricut 12 × 12 in mat (cuts 11.5 × 11.5 in): 292 × 292 mm
- Cricut 12 × 24 in mat (cuts 11.5 × 23.5 in): 292 × 597 mm
- Glowforge Basic, Plus or Pro (about 19.5 × 11 in): 495 × 279 mm
For any other laser or cutter, choose My bed and type its working area. Leave a margin, 5 mm to start, so nothing lands on the very edge.
Which joint should I use?
Puzzle knobs lock wood, acrylic and card tiles together, so a big sign or map holds its shape. Straight joints suit work that is glued to a backing board. Overlap gives each tile a strip of its neighbour, which suits vinyl, paper and stencils: lay the pieces down overlapping, then trim or weed.
Which file do I use with my machine?
LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and the Glowforge app open the SVG; LightBurn and most laser software open the DXF too. For Cricut Design Space, choose Filled shapes so each tile uploads as a cut shape. Every tile is a file the size of the bed, with the tile at its top-left corner, so import at 100% and line the file up with the bed's corner.
What do the tile names do?
Each tile gets a short name, A1, A2, B1 and so on, from the top-left corner: rows are letters, columns are numbers. The name sits inside the tile, clear of your lines, in blue on its own layer, so you can engrave it lightly on the back, score it, or turn that layer off. The assembly map shows where every tile goes.
What does it not read?
Text that has not been converted to outlines, pictures inside the SVG, clones (<use>) and DXF blocks are left out, and the tool lists what it left out. Convert text to paths and unlink clones in your design program first. Strokes are split as lines: a stroke's width is not cut.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Your file is read and split in your browser, and the ZIP is made on your device.