Cloning of an object

A clone looks like a copy of the original object, but it’s more than that. aA clone is a linked copy that changes whenever the original changes. Cloning is similar to duplicating except the clone maintains a link to the original so when you edit the original object the changes will be reflected in clone/s also. Reasons to use clones include artistic (watching several objects change live when you edit only one is an exciting experience, opening many creative possibilities) and technical (using clones instead of duplicates makes the SVG document smaller and faster to display). Map symbols, repeated design elements such as bullets or icons, various symmetrical designs or patterns – all these are easy to do with clones.

Creating a clone of an object Any type of object can be cloned – path, shape, text or bitmap. If you need to get a clone of several objects at once, just group them together and clone the group.

1. Select the object

2. Select Edit→Clone →Create clone from menu bar or Press Alt + D.

3. A clone is created at the top of the original

4. Drag the clone away from the original

(Note: To select the original object while a clone is selected press Shift + D)

Creating clones of clone

An object can have any number of clones, all of which are updated simultaneously when the original is edited.

Moreover, a clone can be cloned too (Here in the below image, at every step a cloned object is increased in its size and then cloned again).

However, if what you need is multiple identical copies of an object (this is the most common scenario), it is better to use multiple clones of the same object than a clone-of-clone chain. To get another clone of the original, you can select any of its existing clones and duplicate it (Ctrl+D).

Clone properties

The new cloned object is a dynamic clone, so whenever you change anything on the original object, it'll change the clone right away. You can move both the clone and its original without one disturbing the other. You can also scale, rotate, or skew the clone independently; however, scaling, rotating, or skewing of the original is passed on to all its clones . Any shape editing (such as node editing on paths or handle dragging on shapes) of the original is also passed on to its clones, whereas you cannot edit shape of a clone at all.

Styling clones- opacity/fill and strokeAny style property, such as fill colour or stroke width, can be changed in a clone to be different from the original. But this is only possible if that style property is unset on the original object. To unset fill or stroke on an object:

1. Select the original

2. Open the Fill and Stroke dialog by selecting Object → Fill and Stroke or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F.

3. The Fill and Stroke dialog open on the right side of the window. Select fill and/or stroke tab in it, and click on the question mark (?). This unset fill and stroke

After unsetting fill and/or stroke, you can create clone and by selecting each clone you can assign any fill or stroke style to it.

Partial styling of a cloned group

If you are cloning a group, you can unset fill or stroke on any object within the group, and that object will become ‘paintable’ in the clones. For example, here the original is a group of four objects.

Out of this four, you can select only the filled circle,i.e.third one (to select this press Ctrl+Alt+Click) and make it fill unset.

Then fill the clones of this group with any colours, and these colours will affect only the filled circle, whereas the highlights and shadows will remain the same as in the original.

Unlinking clones

If necessary, a clone is easy to convert to a regular object – that is, to cut its link to the original. For this, Select the clone and then select to Edit →Clone →Unlink Clone from the menu bar or press Alt+Shift+D. You can unlink many clones at once. This operation does not change any visible aspect of the drawing; only the invisible link to the clone is unlinked. Do this only if you really need to do something that you can’t do to a clone, such as edit its shape.