Inkscape

Location path for an imported figure

Asked by David

I am finding `Inkscape` a really good tool for importing `PDF` or `EPS` scientific plots into a blank page, and then place arrows on top of the graphs, text, make scientific drawings assemble them in the desired location and then save as a unique PDF page that can then be included as a unique `figure` in a `latex` document.

Most of the times I need to continue working over the original PDF plots that I once imported into a inkscape project I made back in time. In these situations, it is quite hard to remember where is the location of the original PDF plot.
(For instance, if this multi PDF plots assemble project was made in *tex, the location path of all the plots would be perfectly identified, i.e. in the `\includegraphics` line).

As far as I am concerned, there is no option in the inkscape interface that allows you to know which is the original location path of the PDF plot that was once imported into the inkscape project. For instance, right clicking on the figure and opening the `Object Properties`, or double clicking the figure and examining the `Objects` subpanel that is opened in the right hand side does not inform about the desired location path.

How can I know the location path of an imported figure?
Is there somewhere in the `.svg` file where it is written the path for an imported PDF figure ?

As a MWE, I have created with `inkscape` a `svg` file that contains two PDF plots. This `.svg` file is 393 lines, so it makes it a bit difficult to copy-paste here. Thus, the following is the link to this `svg` file:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2ad1rur89251vim/fit1_presentation.svg

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TylerDurden (8thrule) said : 		#1

No reference is automatically generated.

One option is to manually add the path of the original chart as a hyperlink in the object after it's imported into Inkscape. Not only will the link display in the status bar when the object is selected in Inkscape, the svg file can be opened in a browser and clicking the object will open the containing directory in the browser.

Workflow:
I would copy the path of the original pdf plot (right-click properties in Win), import it into Inkscape, right click on the imported object to get the "Add link" selection in the menu and paste the path into the Href field of the attributes panel. Continue with annotations, etc... and save. That svg can be opened in a browser to click the plot(s) and see the contents of the directories.

TD

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David (davidcb) said : 		#2

Thanks a lot for your message.

I have been implementing this practice for several days now: every time I import a new figure, create the hyperlink in the object, and write down the location path for the figure in the `Href` field.

For scientific purposes, an inkscape project is really good for placing lots of plots in a single PDF page, together with images (i.e. from a microscope, a visualization of a static simulation, etc). Then you can concatenate several PDF pages and then have a strong few pages summary with lots of information.

I really appreciated your idea. However, I have been finding this practice of `Href`-ing each image a bit dangerous. Let me explain why:

Often times, plots are constantly changing through the python or gnuplot strong scripts, e.g. you change the xlabel, the font of the title, you arrange four separate plots into one plot consisted of 4 subplots, etc. These are new versions of the plots, and according to a good practice criteria, are normally generated in a new folder, in order to not loose track of previous PDF plots you might want to recover in the future.

In the Inkscape project, when deleting an outdated figure, it is very easy to forget to `Href` again (when importing a newly generated PDF plot) with the corresponding new working directory.

I was wondering if it could be possible in Inkscape to automatically write the `Href` filed whenever a new figure is imported?

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#3

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.