The Best Free Online Tools & Generators for Laser Cutters (2026 Directory)

Most of the hours a laser owner spends are not spent at the laser. They go on drawing a box that fits, working out a hinge, or making a name that doesn’t fall apart when you cut it out. A good free generator saves the lot. This is a short tour of the ones worth knowing, grouped by the job they do. The full list, with search and filters, is in the LaserQuote tools directory.

A note before we start: apart from our own tools, everything here is made by other people. Pricing, licences and features change, so check each site before you rely on it for paid work.

Box and case generators

MakerCase is the quick one: type your dimensions and material thickness and get a finger-jointed box. Boxes.py is the deep one, an open-source generator with hundreds of designs and fine control over joints and kerf. TemplateMaker is the one to try for packaging-style die-lines.

Shipping cartons are a different problem from finger-jointed wooden boxes: they are cut and folded, not slotted together. For those, our own Custom Shipping Box Generator makes wrap, roll-end tuck-top and telescoping designs with the cut and score lines already on separate layers, and there is a full tutorial in How to Laser Cut Custom Cardboard Shipping Boxes.

Living hinges

A living hinge is a pattern of cuts that lets stiff sheet material bend. Atomm’s hinge generator lets you set slot length, spacing and kerf and preview the bend before exporting. There is also a free Inkscape extension for drawing hinge patterns (check it supports your Inkscape version first), and Boxes.py includes flex-cut designs for curved edges. Whatever you use, test the pattern on your own material: how far it bends before it cracks depends on the board or wood, not on the generator.

Text and stencils

Cut-out lettering has an old problem: the middle of an “o” falls out. Cuttle’s connected text template welds the letters together so the word stays in one piece, and its block-of-text template fits words into a rectangle for coasters and signs. For engraving or scoring, the Hershey Text extension in Inkscape writes text as single-stroke lines, which run much faster than filled letters.

Generators and artwork

Gear generators (Gear Generator, and the simple Woodgears template page) draw meshing gears from a tooth count. The Draradech jigsaw generator makes puzzle layouts. QR Code Monkey exports QR codes as vectors, though you should always scan an engraved code before you sell it. Vectorizer.AI traces images into vectors, and Openclipart has public-domain artwork. For squeezing more parts onto a sheet, SVGnest and Deepnest are free nesting tools, and tighter nesting is one of the easiest ways to lower the material cost on a quote.

Software

LightBurn is the common choice for running diode and CO2 lasers and has a free trial. LaserGRBL is free for GRBL machines, and xTool users have Creative Space. Inkscape is the free vector editor most of the tools above assume you have, and LibreCAD and FreeCAD cover 2D and 3D CAD work.

Benchmarks and costing

Three of our own tools help once the design is done. The Laser Test Grid Generator builds a speed and power card for a new material. The Material Cost & Waste Estimator shows how many parts fit on a sheet. And the Machine ROI Calculator tells you how long a laser takes to pay for itself.

How to choose

• Start with the tool that outputs the file type your software opens (SVG, DXF or LightBurn).
• Prefer tools where you can set kerf and material thickness, because a design that ignores them will not fit.
• Cut a prototype in cheap material before you commit to the real stock.
• Keep a note of the settings that worked, and price the job from real time and material, not guesses.

Spotted a good tool we missed? Use the “Suggest a tool” button on the directory.