First things first, a few tips.

• You will want to zoom in and out constantly so be sure to know what keys to use. For Windows, I use “Control + Mouse Wheel” to zoom in and out. A lot of times you will be right up close to the vector lines and you will want to zoom in and out to make sure your lines look good. 
• At times, you will want to move your node just a tiny bit and using the mouse to move the node ends up positioning it a bit too much. An easy fix is to left click on the node and hold the mouse button down. While holding the node, use your up, down, left, right arrow keys to slightly shift the node into position.
• When connecting two nodes, overlap slightly. (use the tip above to go a touch past the lines you are trying to connect.
• Work on your piece as large as possible so your nodes are easier to see when you zoom in. A piece too small and you will have a very difficult time even selecting the node you want. On the flip side, be sure to adjust your nodes so that once you size your piece smaller, it will still be noticeable that it was adjusted.

**IMPORTANT NOTE: While this should be a no brainer, I feel it needs to be stated. When downloading an image from online, be sure it is free and not watermarked/trademarked/purchased/illegal to use. I do not endorse pirating other peoples work. If you see an image you want to use that is watermarked and you cannot find it for sale anywhere, attempt to locate the creator and see if they will allow you to use the image in your own work. Most creators will allow this (sometimes for a fee) as long as they are acknowledged as the original creator.

I went online and found a free svg of an egg. I copy and pasted it into XCS. (Another new feature of XCS2.0). I traced it and then I outlined the trace. I then deleted the original and the trace and kept just the outline.

If you then double left click on the trace, your vector points should appear. Zoom in and you will find dozens and dozens of vector points.

Why did I not just keep the trace? Well the trace would have had vector lines for both the inner and outer lines. I just wanted a single line, which I got from outlining the traced egg. Some svg that you can get online you can just trace as well if there is not a background.

If, for whatever reason, you are getting a traced line both inside and outside of the egg shape, try to find a solid (filled in) egg online to download. 

After you have your vector points up, select a spot on either side of the egg where you want your ‘crack’ to start. Zoom in as close as possible to where you can see individual vector points. If you have a lot of them, you may still see them overlapping. Just get as close as possible. 
Once you have zoomed in, select a vector point and pull it into the body of the egg. You will create a ‘v’ shape.

You will also create a gap between two vector points along the edge of the egg. Remember, the point of this tutorial is to create a broken egg shape where the two halves fit perfectly. So, to ensure this, go to that gap and grab one of the vector points by left clicking and hold. Then use your arrow key to step the vector point towards the other. You want the two to just barely touch. This should create a narrow channel that will be the start of the ‘broken egg’

Once that first vector is adjusted, you can then proceed to run a crack along your egg. Use the space bar and left click hold to move your piece from side to side while zoomed in. Make your crack random but be sure to go in a different direction each time from the way you ran your ‘crack’ the previous time. 

For example, if you brought your vector line down for a crack running in that direction, then the next crack will run angled up and away from your last crack. 

Don't grab your vector point at the end of the ‘v’ to start your point. Instead, grab a part of the line that is beside that. This will create a new vector point. Pull it away from the point of the ‘v’ in the direction you want your ‘crack’ to go. You will create a triangular shape. In my case, I had an upside down triangle. I then went to the mid point of the line at the top of the triangle and grabbed that line. This created yet another vector point. I pull that line down until it just barely touches the point of the triangle below. Again, when you are really close to the vector point, use your left click hold and arrow keys for fine adjustments.

Rinse and repeat this step to bring your ‘crack’ across your egg.

Stop your crack just a little before opposite side and proceed to the next step.

Starting on the opposite side of your egg, you will do as you did in step 2 and grab a vector point, pulling it into a ‘v’ shape towards the interior of your egg. Bring the point of the ‘v’ to just beside the end of your ‘crack’ from the opposite side. Don't forget to go back to the edge of your egg and adjust the two vector points so that they barely touch. 

At the point where the ‘crack’ from one side is near the newly made ‘crack’ from the opposide side, you will overlap them. Bring your ‘v’ point to where it touches the opposite line next to the other ‘v’ point. Square the two points off by creating a new vector point and dragging it to sit near (again, barely touching) the point of your ‘v’.

While this is confusing, if you look at the images, you will see one that shows a circle around 4 points. This is what is meant by overlapping and squaring off. As long as the two ‘cracks’ are fully overlapping, you do not have to have it perfectly squared.

Once this is done, zoom out and left click off your egg. You should notice the vector points disappear and, if you did not miss anything, you should have a crack running from one side to the other of your egg. Without reselecting your egg, zoom in on the crack and move your image from one side of the crack to the other. The two sides of the crack should be equal distance apart along the entire run. If you see a point that is wider, double click the image to bring up your vector points and adjust that area of the crack to where the two equal distances.

Then recheck. When happy with the run of the break in your egg, move on to step 7 or, to add a bit of variety, proceed to the next step.

So breaks in eggs or other fragile devices are seldom even breaks. Sometimes there are ‘cracks’ that shoot off from the main break. To add variety, put in a few of these. I did one on this egg as an example.

Find a point where you want this extra crack. Your intention here is not to fully break this part away but to create a runoff crack. So grab a part of the line and pull it away. This will create a triangle just as you would doing a traditional crack. In my photos, I show a standard triangle with a wide base. 

I grab the left wall of the triangle somewhere in the center and pull it towards the right wall, bringing the vector point close enough to almost touch. This creates a smaller triangle and an offshoot ‘crack’ up to the left. I then grab the base of the smaller triangle, again somewhere around the midpoint and pull it up to just barely touch the tip of the triangle. Once this is done, you should have an off shoot ‘crack’ from your main break in the egg line.

So, this final step is pretty straight forward. Set up your material. You can use any material you want/are able to cut with your laser. I used 1/8" birch for this. I did use the preset settings from xTool for this as it worked great in the past. It was 100 power, 4 speed, 1 pass. 

Once the egg was cut, I pulled it out and tested the fit. As you can see in the photos, the crack was a perfect fit all the way across.

I was so excited to hear that XCS 2.0 was getting vector editing and yet wary of getting my hopes up too high. After using it though, I can honestly say it does not disappoint. 

I created this tutorial using the egg break since it was Easter, but I can see where this would be helpful in the future if I needed to do other types of vector edits. I wrote this tutorial for me and after successfully using it on other projects, felt I should share it with my xTool family in the hopes it may help others. 

While initially daunting (especially if you have hundreds of vector points) you will find it easy to learn and use. 

I have included the broken egg file for any that want to use it. However, the purpose of this was to help others learn about vector editing.

Happy creating!