TopoCharm Laser — Lake Maps (layered SVG + bathymetry)

1 · Location

Units Sheet Shape Saved sizes

🔒 Lock map — zoom & pan the view without moving the map Template / Shape

2 · Water

Lakes, coast & islands Water smoothing 2 Rivers Streams River width 5 River smoothing 2 Line style (rivers & roads) Welded road color Land / background color

3 · Roads & Labels

Ramps, on/off-ramps & connectors Road names along streets Abbreviate (Road→Rd, Street→St…) Label placement Label size 11 Label spacing from road 3 Map label font

Click any name on the map (road, place, peak, bay or area) to edit its size, rotation or text; drag to reposition.

4 · Places & Areas

Show names on parks / areas

Labels the parks, national parks & golf-course areas above (when their layer is on). Drag any name on the map to reposition it.

5 · Bathymetry

Source

Live NOAA depth runs automatically on coasts and the Great Lakes. For inland lakes, load a downloaded depth-contour shapefile zip from any state agency or USGS (the projection is read from the file's .prj — lat/lon, UTM, State Plane / Lambert, Albers and Web Mercator all work). Each depth level becomes its own SVG layer for stacked cutting.

Max depth layers 12 Layer colors Skip shallowest contour (shoreline already comes from OpenStreetMap) Depth numbers on each layer Clip NOAA depth layers to the shoreline (no overlap onto land) File depths are in File depth levels Tint depth fills (preview)

6 · Topographic

Elevation contour lines

Land elevation contours from terrain data — one SVG layer per level for stacked cutting, same as bathymetry.

Contour layers 10 Layer colors Elevation units Elevation numbers on each layer Clip contours to land (no overlap onto water) Tint elevation fills (preview)

6 · Markers & Text

Items drop at the centre — drag them into place. Click to select, double-click text to edit it.

Selected size 42 Selected color Text font Cut-out plate behind text 0

Adds a padded plate behind every label (its own layer) — cut it to clear the busy map behind the text so it stays readable. Applies to road names, place names & your custom text.

6b · Icons (engrave)

Upload PNG/JPG/SVG icons (saved in your browser), click one to drop it on the map, drag to position, click it to resize. They embed in the SVG for engraving.

7 · Export (SVG)

Physical width

Cut-ready: outlines only, color per layer Text as vector outlines (works in all laser software)

Each feature — and each depth level — is its own Inkscape/Illustrator layer. With "Text as vector outlines" on, road names (parallel to their streets), place names and your custom text are converted to real glyph paths — LightBurn & co. show them directly. (Georgia/Arial outline as Montserrat.)