How do you separate several images...

[motap1]

that are saved as one on a page? I have purchased some SVG files that have several intricate images on one page..such as a bird cage, frilly bird, and doily. Is there a way other than breaking apart the images (which breaks apart everything on the page) and then selecting piece by piece to recreate one image by itself? In other words, is there a way to select, for example, the birdcage only which may have many cuts to it, and duplicate it without all the other images on the page?

Thanks!
Maurine

[Gigi]

You should be able to ungroup them - then you can select an image at a time. If you do have to break them apart as a last resort, just take the cursor and make a box around each image and group that image and you will then have each image together. Hope that made sense.

And then yes, you can take the birdcage and duplicate it. You can remove the other images, or I would save the file with the individual images together (grouped separately) so you have them, and then you can remove what you don't want and duplicate what you do.

You can also change the colors of each of the images so that will put each on a separate layer and then turn off the layers/images you dont want and duplicate what you do. There are a lot of different ways to obtain the same results.

Hope that is somewhat clear - I shouldn't be trying to make sense this late!!

[Elizabeth]

Hi Maurine. If you are looking to separate the images for cutting, so that you can cut each of them from a different color, for example, you can usually use the SCAL layers panel to turn the images on and off.

SCAL Capture 1.PNG

SCAL Capture 1.PNG

(If you already knew this, please disregard! For some reason, I missed it the first time around with SCAL, and just figured it out recently!)

[Gigi]

Thanks for taking the time to show it in pictures , Elizabeth. So much easier to understand!

[motap1]

Below is hopefully are a couple of screen shots showing what I meant. Note that there are 4 images, but they are not identified as being in a group - they are 'one' image. when I try to select one of them, and draw the blue-dotted box around one of the objects, it (the box) disappears when I release the mouse key. Since there is no 'Group' on the page, the group/ungroup options are grayed out.

[Elizabeth]

Ok, now I see what you mean. You will need to click on any one of the images, which should put a box around all of them, as they are grouped. Then go to the object menu and choose break apart. This should separate all of your elements into separate pieces. You can then play around with grouping the individual elements back together. You can also use the choices on the path menu to Boolean join them in different ways to suit your needs.

[motap1]

Thanks so much, Elizabeth. That's what I have been doing but I was really hoping there was a quicker, easier way

[Gigi]

Did you put a box around all of them and just ungroup them? Depending on how they were joined, they might separate that way. Then just draw a box around each one, group each of the 4 and then resave it - then you will have the four separate items and can use them as you want.

The second image has more pieces but same principle. Elizabeth and I are basically saying the same thing, just differently! I think group/ungroup option is grayed out because you have to select all of them first and then you should have the option to ungroup. Make sense??

I actually think it's a pretty quick way to separate them - have to do that with a fair number of files. Good luck!

[motap1]

Thanks, Gigi. Neither file was joined as a 'group', so I couldn't separate the items. I haven't used Inkscape much (enough learning curve with SCAL for the time being ;-0) ; but could I separate them there and then bring them in individually?

[Gigi]

Yes - you can separate them in either program easily. Will send you a PM

[Angel135612]

Another thing I don't think anyone has mentioned. Sometimes you need to click on the UnGroup more than once to get objects to actually ungroup. I know there are some files that I have had to click more than a few times to ungroup them.

I don't think there is any way to know in advance if you need to ungroup or break apart a design. It all depends on how the designer created the design. Sometimes I have to try both, if one doesn't work, I try the other. I will try the ungroup 3 or 4 times and if the design doesn't separate then I will try the break apart.