Inkscape scripting and automation: nodes?

Question

How does Inkscape handle nodes in scripting? Or can the nodes be written out in some way? Or perhaps there is a better place to ask about this:

I have a simple manual clicking routine that seems a good candidate to automate using Inkscape scripting:

1. Draw one circle.

2. Move the circle so the center snaps onto the first node in a list.

3. Repeat for the next node until the number of nodes is reached.

This works so far, thus my interest in Inkscape, however, there are a number of problems that I think will be solved if the nodes are worked with differently. I have read/tried:

GitHub repository: Simple Inkscape Scripting

Also see:

• Inkscape.org: Simple Inkscape Scripting

• Tutorial – Inkscape Scripts

• Inkscape wiki: Using the Command Line

... as well as the documentation. So far, SimpInkScr works great but apparently does not work with nodes. I wonder if perhaps Inkscape can somehow write out nodes as points in a file to work with outside Inkscape.

programs used:

• Inkscape v 1.1.2

• Ubuntu Linux 22.04.2

• SimpInkScr: not sure of the latest version number, but it is as of Feb. 21, 2023.

I also just found:

How can I automatically draw a circle on each node of a path in Inkscape?

update/progress:

.. if this is outside the scope of this user group, I apologize - perhaps Stack Overflow is better - but back to the svg question :

This describes paths in the svg file. This describes the basic shapes.

I can put circles around nodes in a path by editing the svg file. there are pairs of coordinates. This will work perfectly with command-line tools (awk,sed,bash,..) if the relationships between "m", "c", "l",.. and the pairs of coordinates can be maintained. I will try to put an example image up of a testing case - with an errant circle.

relevant svg code snippet for the above image:

    <!-- the circle is here
     Inkscape gui says:
     x,y = 50.000,50.000 mm
     W,H = 120.000,120.000 mm
     110.000,110.000 is center and a line node
     110.000,230.000 is where the line ends
     -->
    <circle
       style="fill:none;stroke:#ff0000;stroke-width:0.262654"
       id="path846"
       cx="110"
       cy="110"
       r="59.868671" />
    <!-- another circle centered on the end of the line with 2r -->
    <circle
       style="fill:none;stroke:#ff0000;stroke-width:0.262654"
       id="circle5"
       cx="110"
       cy="230"
       r="120" />
    <!-- try circles centered on things -->
    <circle
       style="fill:none;stroke:#ff0000;stroke-width:0.262654"
       id="circle6"
       cx="154.68248"
       cy="194.63248"
       r="30" />
    <circle
       style="fill:none;stroke:#ff0000;stroke-width:0.262654"
       id="circle6"
       cx=""
       cy=""
       r="30" />
    <!-- now the path with some nodes -->
    <path
       style="fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:1;stroke-linecap:butt;stroke-linejoin:miter;stroke-miterlimit:4;stroke-dasharray:none;stroke-opacity:1"
       d="m 110,110 38.04426,11.79937 6.63822,72.83311 L 110,230"
       id="path1062"
       sodipodi:nodetypes="cccc" />
    <!-- end of path with some nodes -->

Answer 1

This Graphic Design SE post will be very useful for this question. It is still not clear how scripting is handled in Inkscape (e.g. loading a script into a window or some such), but it might not matter because the command-line scripts (amenable to "automation") and Inkscape GUI tools referred to in the linked SE post will be of great value to get/edit/add 1. nodes and 2. calculate plain-text format x,y coordinates of a curve or other vector features.