I want to create the grid that covers a microwave oven door. So far, I have made a background and some 40x30 amounts of circles. Is there any way more efficient than one by one make a difference with the background.

I am trying to make all the dots into one object by drawing a thin line through them all, but it is far from an optimal solution

I am using version 0.46 on Debian Lenny

Edit -> Clone -> Create Tiled Clones

See http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Tiles.html for more information.

One by one is the worst way to do it. There are several ways to get this done.
1. Tiled clones is probably the "correct" way to do it because if you want to change the shape of the "holes" in your grid you just do it to the original path and the other "holes" automatically update their shapes. I also find the tiled clones tool the most cumbersome to use -- too many options.

2. Using the tool draw the ellipse that you want to be the size and shape of the "holes" in your grid. If your grid needs to be 100 x 100 and you are using perfect circles make them 10x10 and make 99 duplicates. Select all your circles and do Object>Rows and columns. Set it to 10 rows and 10 columns with spacing of zero. This will create your grid. You can then do Path>object to path and Path>combine to get one path. If you have a rectangle it's going over and you just want to have a single path make the rectangle a path and then line up the grid of circles and the rectangle and do path>difference.

3. A less intuitive way which may yield less control over the exact shape of the holes but will be fast is to draw a rectangle the dimensions you need your grid to be. Set the stroke to 0.5. Select the rectangle and do Effects>Render>Grid. Set the size of the holes you want. Select the grid and do path>stroke to path, then Path>break apart. Now keep all of the paths you just created selected together and swap the fill and stroke. With all the paths selected to Path>simplify (ctrl-L) multiple times to get more and more rounded holes. When the holes are a good enough shape do Path>combine.

Thanks a lot for the solutions proposed!

Cloned tiles is definitely the proper way to go. However, the clones are not paths, but clones ... And thus can't be differenced from the rectangle made to path. So no luck there. Nothing I tried could convert the clones to paths.

Apart from that snag, it's the way to go.

So far I have duplicated circles (made to paths) into rows, then duplicated rows over and over, then blocks of rows. It worked, but was laborious.

So, any tips on how to make clones into paths?

with all your clones selected do edit>clones>unlink clones. They will be ellipses unless you converted your ellipse to path before cloning. To do the path difference you need to convert your ellipse to path before cloning or convert all the cloned ellipses to paths after unlinking clones.

Spot on!

I totally failed to look for "unlink". But now it seems logical.

Thanks