Do the union with ONLY the spirograph selected, not the spirograph and circle. You're doing a union on one object only.
Oooooooohh! I didn't get that part.
The good news is that I have finally gotten the result I wanted! The not necessarily bad news, but not quite good either, is that when I apply Union to the spirogram alone, I don't get the same result you do. But still, when I apply Difference to both the Unioned spirogram and pink circle, I get what I want.
Wow, it's going to take me some time to understand effectively what we've covered.
So you came up not only with changing the Fill Rule, you also thought of applying an operation to one path alone -- brilliant!! Here's some more beer

(need more? I've got an endless supply, lol!) How did you ever think of applying a path operation to only one path? In general, what kind of circumstances might call for a path operation on only one path? I have a very basic kind of understanding of the Fill Rule stuff, but the path operation on only one path, it just sails right on over my head!
Do we need to worry about me not getting the same result as you, for Union on the spirogram only? Should we discuss it, to round out this discussion for other potential readers of this topic thread? I'm thinking it's probably due to our different versions. What do you think?
Off topic:
...because i still can't access the site it is hosted on.
I'm sorry you're having so much trouble loonquawl. Is there anything I can do to help? Of course it's up to you whether to contact them about your problems, but it might strengthen the gravity of the issue, in case petaIMG is unaware of it.
I guess my biggest concern is that
1 - There are so few hosts available for SVG's.
2 - Inkscape users, or graphic artists in general my have their systems set up similarly, such that they can't access the petaIMG files. If this is the problem, they could significantly increase, potentially, the number of people using them to host SVG's, by resolving this problem. Therefore, petaIMG should have a significantly vested interest in resolving these issues.
3 - And because I need to use them, or else go and get a new Firefox browser and switch over to use it for the file-sharing type of host.
In any case, if it would be helpful for me to contact petaIMG as well, for either one of you (or both), I'll be glad to do it.
Oh geez, now I can't access the file either (although I could after I uploaded it). Well good then, I have an opportunity to share my concerns with them as well!
Sorry this is getting so wordy. But I see from
petaIMG's blog that they have just switched to a new host, as of August 19th, so maybe there are some kinks they need to work out?
Just to make sure I've done everything I can do, I've uploaded the image again. Who knows, cross fingers

Here's the new link:
http://www.petaimg.com/uploads/1219847417.svgAnd at this moment, I've been able to open it. And yikes, you do get the whole bunch of spirograms I've made

OK, another lesson learned!
Sorry this got to be so long, this reply AND the whole thread. But I do appreciate everyone's efforts, especially microUgly. And I hope the main content of this thread will be helpful to others. (And maybe we'll help petaIMG as well.)
Good work, everyone! And many, many thanks for everyone's time and attention to this problem

[Edit -- PS, I'll be sure and post my final image to the Show It Off forum. I'm thinking of doing a collage of spirograms....but we'll see what I can do

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