Splitting SVGs in Inkscape (multiple layers short tutorial)

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Vanutau
Isola della Tontola
Let's say you have a 30kb SVG you want to split into less than 15kb layers:

1 - It must have been processed on SVGomg, so you get a lot of paths.
2 - Open it on Inkscape, resize it only once (this is important to keep the resulting SVGs proportionate).
3 - If there's 300 paths (for example), select the first path and - holding shift down - add 99 more to it - no need to count them all, just try to guess tentatively the line where the 100th is, if you get to 85 add 15 more - always holding shift down.
4 - Now you have 100 paths selected: right click and Group them.
5 - Do the same as above to create 2 more 100 path groups out of the remaining ones.
6 - You have 3 Groups now: select and delete the first two (remember: shift down)
7 - Save as optimized svg the 3rd Group (don't resize it) naming it 1.
8 - Undo twice, delete 1st and 3rd, save the 2nd (no resize) naming it 2.
9 - Undo twice, delete the last Group, save the 1st (no resize), name it 3.
10 - You should have 3 (1 2 3) less than 15kb svgs now, upload them in your GT7 DecalUploader.
11 - In livery Editor: choose svg 1 decal, duplicate it twice, replace the 1st duplicated with svg 2 and the 2nd duplicated with svg 3.

Hope it's clear enough.:lol:

Below: that's the best I did, 17 layers SVG (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly opening scene)

 
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3 - If there's 300 paths (for example), select the first path and - holding shift down - add 99 more to it - no need to count them all, just try to guess tentatively the line where the 100th is, if you get to 85 add 15 more - always holding shift down.
Does Inkscape show you how many nodes you have selected when you've selected paths? This would probably take some of the guess work out of how many to select. I know in Corel I can have about 1800-2500 nodes selected (depending on optimisation) to end up with about 15kb.
 
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Does Inkscape show you how many nodes you have selected when you've selected paths? This would probably take some of the guess work out of how many to select. I know in Corel I can have about 1800-2500 nodes selected (depending on optimisation) to end up with about 15kb.
Hmm, I don't really know, and I've never found a way to see the kbs before saving, on Inkscape. But it's not that hard, generally I divide the paths total for "x" to get an average of 10kb, most of the times it works.
 
@MatskiMonk

I checked, if 1 path is selected I can see how many nodes it's made of, after selecting more than 1 it just shows how many objects are selected.
Yeah, Corel's similar. It'd probably do it if you combined the paths while highlighted to check the number then hit Ctrl-Z before grouping, but I don't suppose it makes that much difference unless you're trying to be super efficient.
 
Yeah, Corel's similar. It'd probably do it if you combined the paths while highlighted to check the number then hit Ctrl-Z before grouping, but I don't suppose it makes that much difference unless you're trying to be super efficient.
I'm not an Inkscape expert, combining paths in a single one, that's interesting, better than grouping them. Do you know approximately how many nodes make 15kb? I had a look at a 14kb svg combined path: that's about 1125 nodes.
edit: oh no! didn't notice the single path is all black! Must group them anyway.
 
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I'm not an Inkscape expert, combining paths in a single one, that's interesting, better than grouping them. Do you know approximately how many nodes make 15kb? I had a look at a 14kb svg combined path: that's about 1125 nodes.
edit: oh no! didn't notice the single path is all black! Must group them anyway.
You can only combine paths that carry the same style, and it puts them all on the same 'layer'.

Nodes for a file size depends on the accuracy. If you click on the Markup tab in SVGOMG and slide the slider up and down between 5 and zero, you'll see it rounding all the coordinates down to less decimal places. If you have 5 characters (including a decimal point) for example, that's literally 5 bytes. If you move the slider down and you have 3 characters (including a decimal point), it's only 3 bytes. Each of those numbers represents a node coordinate (or a curve handle)... but accepting that you might have 1kb of style info or other markup, then you've got space for 14,300 more characters... 14300/5 characters per node = 2800 ish, 14300/3 = 4700 ish. Realistically that can vary a quite a bit if it's lots of curves, or if you've got a load of gradients defined.
 
22 layers (247Kb): 1974 Clay Regazzoni Caricature (transparent)

full
 
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