Auto-Bridge SVG. Connect Disconnected Stencil Pieces for Laser Cutting
Drop in your SVG. We find every floating piece and add thin bridges so your stencil comes out of the laser cutter in one piece.
Algorithm
Drop your SVG stencil here
or click to pick, SVG only, up to 5 MB
How auto-bridging keeps a laser-cut stencil in one piece
When you cut a design that has fully enclosed shapes, the parts trapped inside fall out the moment the laser finishes. Bridges are the small tabs of material that hold those parts in place. Here is what is actually happening and how to get it right.
Why floating pieces happen
Think of the letter O. The ring is the material you keep, but the disc in the middle is completely surrounded by a cut line. As soon as that line closes, nothing connects the middle to the rest of the sheet, so it drops onto the bed or falls through the honeycomb. The same thing happens with the counter of an A, the dot inside an i once the tittle is separated, the eye of a needle, or any island of ink that a photo trace leaves stranded.
On a screen the design looks perfect because pixels do not obey gravity. On a laser bed they do. A single stencil can hide dozens of these islands, and finding them by eye is slow and unreliable, which is exactly what an automatic pass solves.
What a good bridge looks like
A bridge is a deliberate gap in the cut line, so a thin neck of material stays connected. Good bridges share three qualities. They are thick enough to survive handling, usually at least 1.5 mm on wood and acrylic and a little more on brittle materials. They sit where they read as intentional, along a natural contour or at the top and bottom of a counter, not slashed diagonally across the artwork. And they are placed in pairs on larger shapes so the trapped piece cannot hinge or twist.
The auto-bridge pass looks for every enclosed region, measures it, and drops the smallest tabs that will still hold, so the finished piece cuts as one connected object and peels off the bed in a single lift.
When you should not bridge
Engraving never needs bridges, because engraving only burns the surface and removes no material, so nothing can fall out. Bridges are strictly a cut-through concern. You also skip bridging when a design is already one connected mass, for example a solid silhouette, because there are no islands to hold. If you plan to frame a design or mount it on a backing board, you can sometimes leave counters unbridged and let the frame or backing hold them, but that only works if the pieces are captured, not loose.
Bridging checklist before you cut
- ›Bridge every fully enclosed shape, not just the obvious letters. Photo traces leave tiny islands you will not see until the piece falls apart.
- ›Keep tabs at least 1.5 mm wide on 3 mm plywood or acrylic, wider on thin or brittle stock.
- ›Prefer two small tabs on a large counter over one big one, so the piece cannot swing.
- ›Do not bridge engraving jobs. It only adds marks that do not need to be there.
- ›Cut a small test in scrap first if you are unsure a tab will hold your specific material.
How the auto-bridger works
- 1
Upload your SVG
Drag and drop, or click to pick. Up to 5 MB.
- 2
Choose bridge width
Default 1 mm works for most stencils on paper or thin acrylic. Increase the slider for thicker wood or metal.
- 3
Click Auto-Bridge
Smart Bridge v1 finds every floating piece and connects it to the main body.
- 4
Download
Get bridged SVG and DXF, both are ready for LightBurn, Glowforge, or any laser software.
What is a stencil bridge?
When you cut a stencil on a laser, anything that's a separate piece falls out. The hole in the middle of an "O", the dot on an "i", and the inside of an "8" are all floating islands. A bridge is a thin connector that links those islands to the main material so they stay in place. Without bridges, you can't actually use the stencil for spray paint, etching cream, or fabric dye.
Why use auto-bridging vs. drawing them by hand?
Hand-placing bridges in Inkscape or Illustrator is fiddly: you've got to find every floating piece, draw a rectangle, align it to the nearest edge of the main body, then union the shapes. For a complex monogram or a detailed silhouette, that's 20-40 minutes. The Smart Bridge v1 algorithm does the whole stencil in under five seconds and the bridges are placed at the geometrically shortest distance every time.
Works with LightBurn, xTool, Glowforge, Cricut and more
The output is standard SVG plus a DXF copy, both scaled to millimetres. Drop either into LightBurn, xTool Creative Space, Lasergrbl, Glowforge, Cricut Design Space, or Silhouette Studio. Nothing proprietary, no plugins, no Adobe subscription.
Privacy
Your uploaded SVG is processed in a single short-lived job and deleted from our servers as soon as the bridged output is generated. We don't keep copies, we don't share files with third parties, and we never train AI on your designs. See the privacy policy for the long form.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the auto-bridger actually do?
It scans your SVG, finds every separate piece (floating letters, the centre of an O, a star's outer ring vs. an inner cutout, etc.), and adds thin connectors so the whole thing comes out of your laser cutter as one solid stencil. Without bridges, all those inner pieces fall out the moment you cut them.
Will it ruin my design?
The bridges default to 1 mm wide and connect each island to the nearest point of the main body, so they're inconspicuous and structurally sound. You can adjust the width with the slider before downloading. typical range is 0.5 mm for thin acrylic up to 5 mm for thick wood.
What file types do you accept?
SVG files only in v1. We accept exports from Inkscape, Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Figma, and any vector tool that produces standard SVG. DXF input is coming in v2.
Do you store my file?
No. Your SVG is processed once and the input is deleted from our servers immediately after the bridge job completes. We do not train AI on your designs, share them, or keep copies.
How much does it cost?
Free. Anonymous users get 5 conversions per day from one IP. Signed-in users get 30 per day. After that, additional conversions cost 1 credit each.
What software does the bridged file work with?
Any laser-cutting software that imports SVG or DXF: LightBurn, xTool Creative Space, Glowforge, Lasergrbl, LaserGRBL, Cricut Design Space (SVG), Silhouette Studio, and Inkscape for further editing.
My stencil already cuts in one piece, do I need this?
No. The tool only inserts bridges between disconnected components. If your SVG is already one connected shape, nothing changes and you get your file back intact.
How does the bridging algorithm work?
Smart Bridge v1 rasterises your SVG, runs a connected-components scan to find every separate piece, calculates the shortest physical distance from each island to the main body, draws a bridge of your chosen width between them, then retraces the result. Same approach used by professional CAM software for stencil-mode cuts.