Alright, I have an issue that's a bit complicated. I have exported an SVG file from Google's Sketchup 3d program. When opened in Inkscape it looks like this:



But when I try to paint, one of two things happen. First and foremost, it won't let me paint, it tells me the Area is not bounded. It seems to be the curves it has trouble with since I can paint anything square. Which leads to the second problem which is that when I do paint something square, it comes out strangely shaped. Any ideas whats up with either of these? TIA

Often when you save these SVG's from other programs they aren't "optimized" for editing, and especially colouring.

If it's telling your the area is not bound when using then it means there's a significant gap in the outline of the drawing that would otherwise allow the paint to bleed out into the open area. You might be able to find this gap if you disabled "Show page border" in the document property. If you still can't find it you'll need to post the SVG online for us to examine.