I am trying to laser engrave an svg image using Lightburn.  When I load the svg into Lightburn a number of hidden paths are revealed.  How can I remove the hidden paths using Inkscape without destroying the desired structure?

In Edit>Find/Replace

Try searching for display:none

That's the usual way elements are hidden in svg.

It can be as an attribute (or more usually) as a style

I've attached a screenshot with the correct settings.

However, are you sure they are hidden ? 

It could also be that opacity / fill-opacity / stroke-opacity are set to zero

or that the element has a stroke / fill of none too.

Searching for display:none finds no hits.  And I have not found a fill / stroke setting that reveals the element.

 Using the Node tool I am able to roll over and select the elements.  They include the desired structure plus the hidden bits.  So simply deleting the element would destroy the desired structure as well as the hidden bits.

I believe it‘s about clipped paths - not invisible content. Inkscape can Cut paths - but it means extensive cleaning afterwards.

In that case, if Gary is able to post a sample svg ? 

We could suggest a strategy.

Posted

I'd

  - download and install cut and remove by shape extension (this will save time).

 - release clip on G16 and rename the clipping path with an easy name (let's say plate_border, ie).

- ungroup everything

- select (holding alt key to drag-select) : equal height lines and combine them, do the same for azimuths and unequal hours.

- select one of the combined lines and plate_border and run cut and remove by shape extension. then eventually ungroup

- repeat for the other combined lines.

Take care, there are manys duplicates lines in your design (>> double burn).

I'd be interested to know the way you designed this astrolabe. I guess you know Richard Wymarc's site.

Thanks, David248!  I'll give that a try.

You are correct - this was generated from Richard Wymarc's Astrolabe Generator.  I have contacted him about this issue and he has added it to his to-do list for the next release.

His astrolabe generator now generates svg files ?

You can find in his wbsite a reference to an interesting publication explaining the way to draw (without maths) an astrolabe. It was interesting to do with inkscape.

His generator creates eps files, which I converted to svg online.

I think you'd better use the pdf version of astrolabe generator, and open it with inkscape. Pdfs look less messy once opened.

With object's panel, check which objects are clipped, use node tool (to clearly see which path it is on canvas), either shift-select paths on canvas or ctrl select them on objects panel. Then combine them (their cliiping path is the same, inkscape lets you combine them).

Then rename the path (this will help you further) right clic > release clip and use path> cut path, this creates a bunch of new paths with the name you gave, delete the unwanted  bits, and combine the remaining.

Can you recommend a pdf generator?

I just printed the astrolabe with pdf24 :  it worked fine, to me.

The document also has a number of dupllicated paths, and most of the circular/elliptical paths have duplicated nodes. These may interfere with effective optimization of the document via booleans.

PDF may work a bit better, but they often have a voluminous number of clipped objects.

Here's a video (see .mp4 attachment link) of how I commonly clean up this type of file.

In the video, I only do the large bits... the smaller ellipses need duplicated nodes removed before combining.

If the ellipses are not cleaned-up, odd behavior results:

Despite the help provided from everyone here, my lack of Inkscaping skills were getting me nowhere.  In the end I was able to use Lightburn's layers and masks to laser engrave the object without needing to edit the file.  Regardless, thanks for all of your suggestions!