Hi everybody
Nice forum and ... my compliments. This is my first post although I've been picking up some tips
I've got a few questions:

1) I'm trying to learn how the radial replacment works, but it is quite hard. I've been reading the manuals available on line (also that of Tavmjong Bah) but to no point.
I'd like to build something like the european flag, but whith the first five-pointed star moved of 15° and with its center of rotation and lower point crossed by the diameter of a circle (around the circle there are the stars).
I hope I managed to get the message across, but maybe with an image it would be easier (I don't know how I can do that)

2) With cloning I've got several images starting from one: how can I select one by one so that I can work on that particular clone?

3) When I change the center of rotation of an object, how can I have it back to the original position (without doing CTRL+Z)?

Well, that's all for the moment. If someone can help me somehow ... thanks a lot

Shift click the center and it should reset its position.

With regards to the european union type thing, I'd do it this way:

Create a circle, thats the size you want your stars arranged around.
Create the first star, and put it in position so that its ligned up right.
group them.
double click the groupe, select the star, and cut it from the document.
select something else so that the layer setting resets to not being the group, then reselct the circle.
do edit>tile clones
make sure remember position is ticked.
set up a clones with rows=however many stars you want, scale of -100% per row and rotation of 15 degrees perrow if thats how often you wanted stars.
you'll get however many circles on top of each other.
do paste in place to put your star back into the document in the same position you had it before, then use the xml editor to move it back into the group.
since the clones are of the group adding the star should add it to all the clones.
you can either delete the circle, or remove the stroke/fill
should be done.

Thanks Simarilius for your reply.
Here you can see my first attempt: http://www.galvano.altervista.org/prove/first_attempt.svg. As you can see I still haven't managed to place the stars as I d'like to, but I thinks it's question of patience.
Anyway I keep on studying your help:

xml editor to move it back into the group

this sounds a bit hard. Moreover I don't know how to select star by star; now they are all linked together (+ the lines below them). I've tried "ungroup tool", but to no point.

Well, thanks again

helphope wrote:As you can see I still haven't managed to place the stars as I d'like to, but I thinks it's question of patience.

Wait, stop. You should be using Tiling. It'll allow you to create the effect accurately and instantly. Infact, Tavmjong has demonstrated eactly what you are after with the European flag.

You only need to move the original star, in the xml editor if you've only got this in your doc it'll be the one thats not a <use>

Simarilius wrote:You only need to move the original star, in the xml editor if you've only got this in your doc it'll be the one thats not a <use>

Forgive me if I'm not following properly, but if he needs to select the original star, couldn't he use the "select original" command (Shift+d)?

Also, helphope, if you don't know how to select star by star because they are overlapping, you can use Alt+Click to select under. Subsequence clicks toggle through the z-order of objects. Here's a bunch of command to help you select objects.

Thanks you all

Wait, stop. You should be using Tiling.

I did use tile clone (P1 symmetry, ...); just for the first two stars... I placed them ( I centered them on the vertical axis of the line and then align top/bottom) (

cut it from the document.

this is still unclear) then i rotate them by hand ( I need one of the five external vertexes the star and the center of rotation of the star to be aligned on a line passing thorough the center of an hypothetical circle), and finally I applied tiling. But since the alignment on the line isn't perfect ... there is the output.
I'll keep on trying - tomorrow on holiday, but on Tuesday down to this again. Maybe as a first task in Inkscape I've been too overconfident.

It's not clear to me what issues you are still having, or if you're using the tile command in the best way. So here's how I create a circle of 6 stars in 4 steps for reference.

1. Draw the star and a line.
2. Centre line and star on verticle axis then group them together. The line is there to change the centre axis when performing the rotation with the tile command.
3. Create Tile Clone (Rows:1; Column:6; Symmetry: P1; Shift X Col: -100%; Angle Col:60)
4. Select the original, enter the group and delete the line.

helphope wrote:3) When I change the center of rotation of an object, how can I have it back to the original position (without doing CTRL+Z)?

By grouping the object (Ctrl+G) you can keep both the original and the translated centre.