Parse a SVG file and creates few others that display a layer at a time (eg, to use with LaTeX xmpmulti's multiinclude)

layer-display-toggle.py

from xml.dom.minidom import parse as parse_xml_from_file
from sys import argv, exit

# SVG file name (drawing.svg)
input_file = argv[1]

# Output files prefix  (animation/steps)
output_prefix = argv[2]

# one or more layers suffixes
layers_suffixes = argv[3:]

# Example:
#
#  python layer-display-toggle.py drawing.svg animation/step l1 l2 l3
#
# will filter all layers in drawing.svg that starts with llf: (aka layer label filter) and
# export all layers that ends with l1, l2 and l3 in three different files. So, if you file
# has layers llf:al1, llf:bl1, llf:l2, llf:l3, the following files will be created:
#
#  animation/step-0.svg
#  animation/step-1.svg
#  animation/step-3.svg
#
# Be sure that animation folder exists.

if len(layers_suffixes) == 0:
    raise Exception, "empty layers spec"

layer_label_filter = lambda e: e.getAttribute("inkscape:label").startswith("llf:")

with open(input_file) as doc:
    dom = parse_xml_from_file(doc)

    layers = filter(layer_label_filter, dom.getElementsByTagName("g"))
    results = [ ]

    for idx, candidate in enumerate(layers_suffixes):
        found = False

        for layer in layers:
            if layer.getAttribute("inkscape:label").endswith(candidate):
                found = True
                layer.setAttribute("style", "display:inline")
            else:
                layer.setAttribute("style", "display:none")

        if not found:
            raise Exception, "{} layer not found".format(candidate)

        results.append((idx, dom.toprettyxml()))

    for idx, data in results:
        with open("{}-{}.svg".format(output_prefix, idx), 'a') as output_file:
            output_file.write(data)

exit(0)