ive been using adobe illustrator to combine 8 pdf's into a single page , is that possible in inkscape? and is there a tutorial for it if it can? thanks

Yes, it's possible. No, I don't think there's a tutorial. 

Open your first pdf. [ctrl+a] selects everything on the page. [ctrl+g] creates a group. [ctrl+s] save as Inkscape svg.

Open the second pdf. [ctrl+a] to select and [ctrl+g] to group. [ctrl+c] copies the group. [ctrl+w] closes the current window and returns the first window. [ctrl+v] to paste the group. [ctrl+s] to save again.

Repeat for files 3 to 8.

thank you ,i'm going to give it a go now

did you mean ctrl + o instead of ctrl +a because that seems to work

After you open the pdf file, [ctrl+a] for Select All then [ctrl+g] to create a group.

ahh, ok, thank you , it is working for what i need 

Seems like we need a Layers to Pages extension and one for Pages to Layers.

That could speed up these types of processes.