SVG not working? Choose the symptom

Divide the size your software shows by the size you expected. About 0.75 or 1.33 means the file is written in pixels and two programs assumed different pixels per inch (72 and 96); 2.54, 10 or 25.4 means inches, centimeters and millimeters were mixed up. Select all of it, close the lock and type the intended width back.

Design Space separates an SVG into layers by color, so a file that arrives as one color is usually a PNG or JPG (uploaded as a single layer), a vector file still grouped, or one whose colors are gradients, patterns or an embedded picture. Upload the SVG itself, then ungroup it to see each color.

A rectangle that cuts around your design is either a background shape saved in the SVG, which you can hide or delete as its own layer, or the edge of a PNG or JPG whose white background was not erased during upload. Erase the background, or upload the SVG, which needs none.

Letters vanish when the SVG still holds live text: Design Space does not accept editable text in an uploaded SVG, and other programs swap or drop a font they do not have. Convert the text to outlines in the original file (Create Outlines, Convert to Curves, or Object to Path in Inkscape) and import the new copy.

A blank canvas usually means the shapes are there but outside the page the file declares, the file holds only a linked or unsupported picture, or every shape is white or unfilled. Select all to find the shapes; in Silhouette Studio set SVG import to Centered, in Inkscape resize the page to the drawing.

When only part of an SVG appears, the missing part is usually clipped by a mask (clipping path), drawn with something the program skips (a gradient, pattern or picture), hidden, or outside the page. In Silhouette Studio's Basic Edition, features from an upgraded edition are removed. Release the clip or merge the shapes, then export again.

Design Space refuses an SVG with more than 5,000 paths ("File Too Large") and is slow with large, high-resolution images. Count the paths in the checker; simplify a traced file or upload one design rather than a whole sheet. For a big picture, crop it or lower its resolution first.

"Your file includes unsupported items" means the SVG holds something Design Space cannot cut: a gradient or pattern fill, a clipping path, live text, a linked image or an embedded picture. Remove or convert that item and export again. DXF does not upload in the iOS and Android apps, and a ZIP must be unzipped first.

Double-clicking an SVG opens it in whatever app your computer uses for .svg files, usually the web browser. To cut it, upload it from inside your cutting software (in Design Space: Upload, Upload Image, Browse), or set that software as the app for .svg files in Windows Settings or the Mac's Get Info.

A machine cuts the path itself, not the width of a painted line, so a shape drawn as a stroke is cut as a single line down its middle. Convert the stroke to a filled outline before you export (Stroke to Path in Inkscape, Ctrl+Alt+C), and check that the layer's Operation is Cut, not Draw.