Four copies stacked on top of each other

[Bad Hair Day]

Hi,

So I accidentally (i.e. I don't know how) made four copies of an object (which is actually a collection of a few hundred objects that don't overlap but are connected by Snapping together in Inkscape) that all sit directly on top of one another.  I don't know how to select just the top layer of the 4 layers so I can delete them one by one unitil I have just one layer. 

How can I select the 4 layers and separate them?

I do NOT mean to use the word "layer" in the technical sense.  I know that Inkscape has this property called "Layers" which is like stacking transparencies and then putting drawings/objects on different transparencies/Layers.  I do not (yet) know how to do Layers in Inkscape, and I am sure that I just hit paste too many times at some point and didn't realize I was stacking them. 

Thanks for reading.

BHD

[Lazur]

Hi.

As you describe it I'm afraid it'll be a bit tedious. By holding Shift you can click on each object one after another with the object select tool, then when all objects to be preserved are selected, hit ! -Shift+4- to invert selection and delete those objects.

Theoretically you can also hold the Alt key and draw a line along the screen which is intended to select all visible objects the line is crossing but my experience is it's a rather laggy method, not sure why.

If these weren't an option -file being too complex- there could be other ways to try though depending on your document structure.
Like if the four objects atop eachother werent put next to eachother one by one but
if they were drawn once one "layer" of objects was finished, all selected and duplicated.
The difference is in the Z-ordering even if that doesn't affect the rendering.
In the latter case everything you see is on the top.
The svg format uses the rendering order in the codes to store data. With the xml editor (Shift+Ctrl+X) you could browse through those objects next to eachother and select them/delete at once.
(Maybe the object browser would also work that way but to my experience that has also a serious lagging.)

[flamingolady]

oh my, we've all been there.  There's more than one way to do this. I usually create a new layer below the one they are on (to be deleted later), select just the top layer of everything you can see and group them.  Then move it to the layer below.  Hide that layer.  you can then delete everything else.
Now, if you're not sure you've gotten everything selected the first time around (because I'm never sure), you can always create 3 or 4 new layers, select the top objects, hit group and move the selection to a new layer, hide the layer.  then when everything is on it's own layer and you're sure that you have a complete set of it, then delete the 3 layers you don't want. 

[brynn]

I probably have a tip to share.  But I don't understand the problem.  How can they be on top of each other and not overlap?