I am trying to put more complex things than a single path to some sort of perspective, so that they stay true to the proportions and placements from the original image. Perspective is not working at all, putting the rectangle on a totally different perspective than the path drawn, plus I need to do each path seperately. I've never used envelopes and think that's what I want to use and when I try the only effect I get is one of my original paths mysteriously disappears. Any Ideas?

Hmmm... you got me there....
We know we can't use Perspective/Envelope on a group of objects, and using Path Effects on a path and its clone causes a lot of weirdness (at least in my copy). Unless someone more knowledgeable can chime in, I can only recommend staying the course and using Envelope or perspective on each individual path. Sorry couldn't be more more help.

I haven't used either Envelope or Perspective very much, so can't really understand what problems you're having. But I'm wondering if you've seen some of the resources in my signature. I'm sure both those Extensions will be covered in the tavmjong bah Guide (also called Inkscape Manual in the Help menu). Plus, I'll bet heathenx has a tutorial on one or both extensions (also see link in my sig).