I do a lot of stacked layer art and some edges need to be the same as the layer above/below at times. I will use the upper most layer to create the same shapes for the lower layers when they are the same. The problem I am running into is when I use Path>Difference many times the edges will not be the same as the top layer that was used to cut the shapes out. For some reason they shift slightly. This can be a huge problem with my kind of projects because you will see different colors showing along edges where you shouldn't. You can see in my images.

My question is, what is the correct way to cut out exact copies from a design without this happening? 

Thanks

Using:

Windows 10

Inkscape 1.3 (0e150ed6c4, 2023-07-21)

Although these shapes were originally created in Adobe (I think), this has also happened to me with designs I have created in Inkscape.

I will also mention that I see this most often when a shape is cut into two pieces. It does not happen on all shapes. I cannot find a pattern for this behavior. This example also used the Difference tool. 

You will also notice that the original example above shows the altered edges are on pieces of larger shapes that were cut out. 

Either increase the number of nodes before Boolean operations or check if increasing Preferences->Input/Output->Numeric precision value can help

Polygon

Either increase the number of nodes

This is kind of difficult to do because my designs are very intricate and there are a lot of shapes. I tried to add more nodes to my design and I ended up with a bunch of my shapes all messed up before I even got to cutting anything. See examples

From what I have read, adding nodes should not change the shape of the object. Is this correct?

Polygon

or check if increasing Preferences->Input/Output->Numeric precision value can help

I am not sure what to do with this? It is set at 8. What should I try setting this to?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Alright. I think I finally found the proper way of doing this. I was adding nodes wrong. I was selecting all the nodes per layer and then clicking on the Add Nodes (+) button on the tool bar. This caused all those weird anomalies and took FOREVER. I then found the Add Nodes extension. This worked much better and quicker. I was able to add a lot more nodes and have them more evenly spaced and not one strange anomaly in my designs. I also cut my design in the exact same way as before, cutting through shapes, and there are no shifts/changes in the edges as before. 

Thanks @polygon for the help!

Glad you found the extension I forgot to mention. Uh - sounds like a summer hit. 🤣