I have 4, 100x100 heat maps that I would like to work with in inkscape. These SVGs have a minimum of 10,000 nodes since each element in the matrix gets a colored rectangle. Inkscape runs incredibly slowly when trying to edit even a single one of these heatmaps. I've read all the performance tips but it seems like no matter what I try inkscape is running too slow. Here is a typical image , note the large blocks of color that are the same, this is typical but doesn't need to happen. None the less write now they are seperate nodes in the SVG

Here are my system specs

OS: Ubuntu 16.04
Memory: 8gb
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz × 4
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)

Can you upload one of the images, so we can take a look at the structure?

Where exactly do you need 10000 nodes? Simply by looking at it doesn't seem like it would strain the system too much, there must be a huge number of objects, do you need such detail?

Have you tried working in outline mode? Ctrl + number 5 on numerical keyboard to switch between modes.

Most likely heat map is divided (traced) in dozens of rectangles, representing different temperature. Still, it looks like there`s not more then 3 or 4 dozens of rectangles and that should not produce 10K of nodes but these numbers, if they are also traced - 10K is the least of nodes one could expect.

The whole thing might be easier to handle if numbers are left as text and heat map turned into the gradient. Not sure if there`s a way to do it other then manually but am sure it would bring some ease.