Most people know the basic shapes in xTool Studio, but not everyone knows about the vector pen tool. It's one of the most useful tools in there. You can draw your own unique shapes with it, or trace around the exact outline of the item you're engraving so the laser only works where it needs to.
In this guide I'll show you the basic shape tools, then the pen tool step by step: straight lines first, then curves, then tidying it all up. To finish, I use a shape I drew around a rusty horseshoe to clean the rust off it with the laser. Everything here works the same on every xTool laser. I used my F1 Ultra.
Jump to: What a vector is · The basic shapes · The pen tool · Straight lines · Curves · Tidying it up · The horseshoe project
What is a vector?
A vector is a design made from mathematical lines, curves and points. Because of that, you can make it as big or as small as you like and it always stays sharp.
A photo (a JPEG or PNG) is different. It's made of lots of tiny dots, and when you stretch it, those dots get stretched too and you lose clarity. That's why vectors are so valuable for laser work.
1. The basic shape tools
The shape button on the left toolbar opens a menu with Line, Rectangle, Circle, Polygon, Star and Vector (the pen). Each has a keyboard shortcut too, shown next to it.
- Click and drag to draw a shape. The width and height change depending on where you drag.
- Hold Shift while you drag to keep it in proportion, so a rectangle stays square and a circle stays round.
- The Elements library is full of ready-made vector designs too, and you can resize those without losing quality.
These will get you by a lot of the time, but they're predefined shapes, so they're limited. That's where the pen tool comes in.
2. Why the pen tool is so useful
The Vector tool looks like a little ink pen, and the shortcut is P. It lets you draw complex shapes with straight lines and curves, so you can make a precise window around an item.
Here's why that matters. I wanted to remove rust from a horseshoe with the laser. I could just draw a rectangle around it, but then the laser would cover a lot of empty space, wasting time and potentially marking the plate underneath. If I draw a shape that follows the horseshoe, the laser only works inside those lines. Time is money, and simple is better.
You don't need a camera for any of this. I turned mine on so you can see the horseshoe on screen.
3. Drawing with straight lines
- Select the pen tool (or press P). A dot follows your cursor.
- Click once to start. A line follows your mouse in any direction.
- Click again to put a point down, like a stake in the ground. That line is now locked in and the next one starts.
- Keep clicking your way around the shape.
- Click the dot you started on to close the shape.
- Right-click and choose Done, or click Done in the top bar.
On the right it shows as a Vector, set to Score by default. Click Engrave and it fills in. You now have a custom engraving area that follows your item, and you can move it and resize it like anything else. It's really good for framing too.
To be honest, I often just use straight lines like this. It's quick to set up and does the same job.
4. Drawing curves
For smoother shapes, you can draw curves:
- Start with the pen tool as before and click your first point.
- For the next point, click and hold instead of just clicking. A gray handle appears.
- Drag to bend the line into a curve. Studio shows you a preview of the next line too.
- Click and hold again on the next point to keep curving. If you just single click, you get a curve into that point and then you're back to straight lines.
A tip from me: put fewer points down to begin with. Less is more. I'm not great at curves myself, so I do a rough pass first and tidy it up afterwards.
5. Tidying up your shape
Before you click Done, you can still edit everything:
- Hover over a line and a dot appears. Click to add a point there.
- Drag any point or its handles to reshape the curve.
- If you've got points you don't need, click one and press Delete.
Click a point and you get extra options in the top bar, such as a sharp corner, perfect symmetry and total asymmetry. Each one changes how the curve flows through that point. Perfect symmetry is the one I used most, because it gives you a nice smooth, even curve through the point. I work in mechanical design engineering, and we'd call that a nice tangent curve.
There's also Simplify vector in the top bar. Click Auto-simplify and it smooths everything out by cutting down the number of points. Mine went from 16 to 7. Click Confirm, then tweak any lines that are still a bit wonky.
If you get it tangled (I did), just grab the handle and pull it back out. With a bit of tidying I ended up with a nice clean outline that followed the horseshoe.
6. The horseshoe project: rust removal
With the shape done, I set it to Engrave so it covered the horseshoe. Then, because cameras are always a little off, I framed it.
The frame went all the way round the horseshoe without overlapping anywhere, which told me the shape was right. If you're not sure how framing works, I've got a framing video (or read the written guide) too.
These are the rust removal settings I used on the F1 Ultra, straight from the screen:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Machine and laser | xTool F1 Ultra, Fiber IR |
| Process | Engrave (vector) |
| Power | 90% |
| Speed | 1,150 mm/s |
| Passes | 1 |
| Lines per cm | 100 |
| Engraving mode | Bi-directional |
| Frequency | 30 kHz |
Treat these as a starting point and test on your own item first. My free Laser Settings Library has more of my tested settings, including a page just for the F1 Ultra.
And it worked a treat. The laser stayed inside the shape and the horseshoe came out clean. That's one of the really valuable things about drawing your own vectors.
What's new since this video
I made this in November 2025, and the pen tool still works the same way. A couple of newer xTool Studio features help with vector work: you can now import DXF files, so designs from CAD software come straight in ready to edit, and the Elements library can be expanded to show everything at once. Both are covered in my xTool Studio update guide.
Over to you
Once you get used to the pen tool, you can trace around odd-shaped items, make custom engraving areas and even draw your own designs. If you're new to Studio, start with my beginner's walkthrough. What would you use it for? Let me know in the comments on the video.
