Creating new shapes in sodipodi

[Philip Serracino Inglott <phsi mlatanet net>]

Can you tell me if there is a tool to 'optimise'
svg? That is to say remove "transform" and turn them
to absolute values.

I tried using sodipodi to create a custom shape, but
had to clean it out by hand (not very nice)

I also tried dia's own export as shape but some curves 
just disappeared!

Thanks

Philip