Correct way to create an extruded mesh from a simple SVG shape? ie. Without creating insanely complex nonsense polygons?

Question

I have been using Blender about a year now and I am completely blown away by how hard it has been to make a simple extrusion and filled mesh from simple SVG shapes. I don't know what I'm dong wrong. At times it seems I can get the job done but other times I just get gibberish and I'm not sure what the difference is.

For example, here is a simple star SVG from Illustrator:

I import it by File > Import SVG.

If I convert that to a mesh most ways then try to do alt f to fill it it will give me absolute nonsense like at best this:

The most effective workflow I have reproducably found is:

• Select the imported svg
• Scale X & Y by 100x or it's too tiny to see.
• Convert to Grease Pencil, select the created Grease Pencil element.
• Convert to Bezier Curve
• Convert to Mesh
• Edit mode, A to select all, F (NOT ALT F) to fill face.
• Then E to extrude and make 3D.

This gives a desired result like this:

As you can see there is one flat face of the star and the complex polygon work is on the extrusion edges as it should be.

The problem is when I did this previously I could select the remaining edge and press "F" to fill it but now I cannot. Pressing F now on the remaining edge does nothing. I must have forgotten one step in this ridiculous convoluted process. So now I only have one side filled not both.

If I try ALT-F on the remaining side it again creates nonsense which is useless.

Why is this so hard? What am I missing?

Here is a simple star SVG:

https://ufile.io/e1r3fcw1

If you can find a better method or one that lets you also fill the remaining face with a single surface I would be very grateful. I can't figure out how I did it before although I have through trial and error over and over so I know it's possible. Thanks.

EDIT 1:

I found the missing step:

• Select the imported svg
• Scale X & Y by 100x or it's too tiny to see.
• Convert to Grease Pencil, select the created Grease Pencil element.
• Convert to Bezier Curve
• Convert to Curve
• Convert to Mesh
• Edit mode, A to select all, F (NOT ALT F) to fill face.
• Then A again, and E to extrude and make 3D.

This seems to work. I am leaving this up though to ask: WHY IS THIS SO INSANELY COMPLICATED? AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

EDIT 2:

For proof, here is a star I made by this process with NO DISSOLVING STEPS REQUIRED:

Both star faces are perfectly filled. Unfortunately, yet again, contrary to Edit #1, I can't consistently reproduce it and I don't know why. Sometimes it works sometimes I am not getting it.

EDIT 3:

Well I just did it twice more and it seems to work so for whatever reason this is the ridiculous workflow for it.

Answer 1

You don't need to convert it to grease pencil, you can convert it directly to a mesh :

This is the star after I imported it :

The origin is at an odd place so, for convenience, I center it in the star with Object > Set Origin > Origin to Center of Mass (I prefer this in this case since Origin to Geometry gives a slightly different result) and then ALT + G to recenter the star at the center of the scene :

You can scale the star up if you want.

Now you can convert it to a mesh with Object > Convert > Mesh :

And you have the mesh with the messy geometry that you don't like :

If you don't mind having n-gons, you can go to Edit Mode, switch to Edge mode (pressing 2 from the number row) just select the outline with ALT + click until you have all of it selected (or right-click if you use right-click select like me) then CTRL + I to invert the selection so that you have only the inner edges selected :

And then, you can press X then chose Edges to delete the edges and you should be left with the outline :

From there you can press A then F to fill and extrude to have your star :

I hope this solves your problem.

EDIT

Alternatively, as @Robin commented, you can also use Limited Dissolve to get rid of the unwanted geometry :

It merges all the faces by dissolving the edges and vertices separating flat regions, you can adjust the angle threshold by pressing F9 after clicking on Limited Dissolve :