Hello Folks,
I chose to tinker around with Inkscape-to-Inventor. It took awhile but it worked.
This started with my attaching a text string (a single word) to a curved path. I then converted this text string to a path, exported as a .dxf file and opened it with AutoCAD. I purposefully chose a fancy, curvy font with no straight lines.
*As Travis noted above, this process taxes the computer. After a few attempts I chose to focus on a single character of the text string.
In AutoCAD I converted all geometry in the letter "G" to a p-line then joined all of those elements to a single, closed path. I thought this path being closed would better enable Inventor to manage the geometry and minimize my element management once imported into Invertor. I was wrong.
I switched to Inventor and executed the Manage> Import command. The option choices were as follows:
Read Content From: AutoCAD or AutoCAD Mechanical
Configuration: Default AutoCAD Configuration. Click Next
I chose the appropriate layer from Model space, Click Next
Import Files Units: Inches
Destination for 2D data: New Part, Project wires to 2D sketch
Part Template: Select an active template. If you select the "standard" template and it does not exist, Inventor will stop the process. Click "Finish".
Inventor opens a new part file and 2 sketches are present. The first sketch appears to be a layer 0 origin point, The desired geometry resides on the second sketch.
I edited the second sketch and attempted to extrude. No dice. I had to perform a "close loop" operation along the entirety of the letter "G". This took some time.
When I finished I had a nifty extruded letter G.
Mel