I understand it works in line segments. I'm trying to turn a contour line like say... the letter U, but into a 1 1/2" bent piece of pipe into the shape of the letter. (this perticular object will be made from exhaust pipe) so how would you pros do it?

is there a plugin that I can at least redraw shapes SMOOTHLY?
an image is one thing but it has to have transparent backround...

Well... .dxf file that I'm saving out of illustrator. I can get it in buy it looses the stroke...

Okay so... I'm designing my first thing In sketchup and it's for a bike rack to get presented to the city for approval to get physically built. I am stuck however and really frustrated. I can't seem to import a vector that retains the original shape or stroke... and I can't even free hand a curvy line without it turning to a bunch of straight lines. So so annoyed at this as its halted my project. I'm running 8pro on a Mac... can anyone help or recommend a free plugin? Thanks!!