What is the difference between scoring and engraving?

Scoring follows a line with low power and leaves a groove. Engraving scans across an area in many close lines and removes material across a whole shape.

Should I engrave before cutting?

Yes. Engrave and score while the sheet is still one piece, then cut the outline last so loose parts cannot shift and spoil the artwork.

How do I tell the software which lines to cut?

By colour or by layer. In SVG files, assign a colour to the cut line, such as red, and a different colour to engraving, such as black. In DXF, use named layers like CUT and ENGRAVE.

What line interval should I use for engraving wood?

About 0.08 to 0.12 mm works for most plywood engraving. Tighter gives darker, slower results; wider is faster but shows lines.

Can one shape be both cut and engraved?

Yes, but make two copies: a fill-only copy for engraving and a stroke-only copy for cutting, each on its own layer.

Cut, Engrave and Score Layers Explained (With Settings)

The best moment on a laser is lifting the first ornament out of the sheet and seeing the little wings, the stitching and the outline all line up. The worst is lifting it and finding the stitching cut clean through, so the wings fall off in your hand. The difference is almost always cut, engrave and score layers set up the right way.

Think of layers as three pens in one machine. Each pen has its own speed, its own power and its own habit. Your job is to tell the software which lines use which pen.

The three layer types in plain words

Layer	What it does	Draw it as	Typical use
Cut	Burns through the material along a path	Hairline stroke, no fill	Outline, holes, slots
Score	Burns a shallow groove along a path, not through	Hairline stroke, no fill	Fold lines, details, panel lines
Engrave	Fills an area by scanning back and forth	Solid fill	Logos, text, shading, textures

In LightBurn these are modes: Line (cut and score are both Line, only the settings differ) and Fill. In xTool Creative Space the equivalents are Cut, Score and Engrave. In Glowforge the colours you assign become cut, score or engrave in the interface. In DXF files, layers carry the intent by name, as in our files with layers CUT and ENGRAVE.

How the laser treats each layer

Cut is a slow, hot pass. The beam follows the centre of the line. A 3 mm sheet of plywood usually needs low speed and high power, sometimes two passes on a diode laser.

Score uses the same kind of path but much less energy, so the beam only chars the surface. It is the layer for fold lines in thin material and for details like the mane of a horse that should be visible but not cut.

Engrave moves the head across the area in lines, firing as it goes. Settings that matter are speed, power and line interval, which is the distance between scan lines, usually 0.05 to 0.15 mm. A tighter interval gives a darker, smoother result and takes longer.

Starting settings for 3 mm plywood

These are starting points, not promises. Every machine, lens and sheet differs, so test on scrap, and read laser power for 3 mm plywood for the logic behind the numbers.

Layer	10 W diode	40 W CO2	100 W CO2
Cut	3–6 mm/s, full power, 2–3 passes	8–14 mm/s, 55–75%	25–50 mm/s, 40–60%
Score	30–80 mm/s, 15–30%	25–50 mm/s, 8–15%	100–200 mm/s, 5–12%
Engrave	150–300 mm/s, 25–50%, interval 0.1 mm	200–400 mm/s, 12–25%, interval 0.1 mm	300–600 mm/s, 8–15%, interval 0.1 mm

For scale, our reindeer ornament has a cut length of 0.47 m. The estimated time for the cut is 1 min 48 s on a 10 W diode, 44 s on a 40 W CO2 and 22 s on a 100 W CO2. Faster machines do not change what the layers mean; they only change the numbers.

Pro tip: cut a row of 10 small squares at different speeds into scrap and label each. The square that drops out cleanly with the least charring is your speed. It takes 5 minutes and saves a sheet.

Run order: engrave, score, cut

The order matters more than most beginners expect.

Engrave first. The sheet is still one flat, held piece, so the image lands exactly where you drew it.
Score second. Same reasoning, and the lines need to be on the sheet while it is stable.
Cut last. Once the outline is cut the part is loose. If it shifts, only the outline is affected.

Most software lets you drag layers in the order list. In LightBurn, layers run from top to bottom of the Cuts / Layers panel unless you change the priority, and there is an option to cut inner shapes before outer ones, which you almost always want so the holes are cut before the part drops out.

Common mistake: leaving a design with a red outline and the same shape filled black on the same layer. The software engraves the fill and cuts the outline in one go with the same speed and power. Either the engraving is far too deep or the outline does not cut through. Split into two layers with their own settings.

Setting up layers in the file

Colour-coding is the simplest system and works across Inkscape, Illustrator, LightBurn and xTool. Our files follow it:

Colour	Stroke or fill	Meaning
Red	Hairline stroke	CUT
Blue	Hairline stroke	SCORE (if used)
Black	Solid fill	ENGRAVE

See what a hairline stroke is for why the line should not be thick, and how to prepare an SVG for the full checklist. For DXF, name layers CUT, SCORE and ENGRAVE and keep the entities on the right layer. Try it on the gingerbread man ornament, which has a clean split between cut outline and engraved decoration.

Common problems and fixes

Problem	Cause	Fix
Engraving is too light on one side	Bed not level or out of focus	Re-focus, check the sheet is flat
Cut does not go all the way through	Power too low, speed too high, warped board	Add a pass or slow down, hold the sheet flat
Engraved text looks blurry	Line interval too wide or image rather than vector	Use 0.1 mm or lower, use vector text
Parts fall through the honeycomb and ruin the next pass	Cutting before engraving	Reorder: engrave then cut
Score line is too faint	Power too low	Raise by 3–5 percentage points
Scorch halo around cut	Too slow, no air assist	Increase speed, turn on air, see do you need air assist

Mixing materials and sheets

Layers are per material. When you cut the same ornament from 3 mm plywood and from 3 mm acrylic you need two sets of settings in two different jobs. Keep a small notebook, or name your saved layers like "ply3 cut diode", and your next job starts with a working baseline instead of guesswork.

A practical layer set-up for an ornament batch

Say you are cutting twelve ornaments for a craft fair. Build the job once and reuse it:

Order	Layer	Colour	Mode	What it covers
1	Engrave	Black	Fill	Face details, text, texture
2	Score	Blue	Line	Light panel lines, if any
3	Cut inner	Red	Line	Hanging hole and cut-out windows
4	Cut outer	Red	Line	The outline, last

Pro tip: save this as a project template or a saved material library entry. The second batch takes two minutes to set up instead of twenty, and the ornaments from week one match the ones from week five.

Heat is the other thing to keep in mind. Engraving a large dark area warms the sheet and can make the board bow slightly. If that happens, lower engraving power a little, add a second lighter pass, or let the sheet rest before the cut layer runs.

Next step

Pick any ornament from the library, import it and open the Cuts / Layers panel. Look at which colours it uses, assign the speeds from the table above, run the engraving only first, and check the result before running the cut layer. Once that works, keep the settings as your template.