I have multiple paths that I want to combine into a single one. Just using Union and Combine isn't working due to the groups, clipping and effects the paths got. I threw together a simple example with some utensils.

I've attached some screenshots to show the example. merge1.png shows the setup I have, merge2.png is the same but I've selected it all to show the nodes. merge3.png is the result I want to get. The first svg file is the initial setup, while the second is the result.

Given the fact that I have a result file mean that I know how to do this, although in a very non-efficient way. I hope that someone could help me to do it in a more direct, and straight-forward way. If possible in such a simple way I can put it into an extension I'm writing (that needs a single path as its input).

The way I did it for this (rather simple) example file:

1. Union the Blade and Handle paths.
2. Release the Knife clip
3. Ungroup the Knife group
4. Intersect the released clip with the knife union
5. Release the Fork clip
6. Intersect the released clip with the Fork path
7. Union the two resulting intersections with the Spoon.

This feels way too much work for the simple thing I want to accomplish.

Worth adding, my paths never have any stroke, and are always completely black.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

This is how I´d go with it: