another Autocad question

[Chuck Wintle]

If I want to extrude a 2d drawing into a box for example how would I do that? I have tried the extrude command but it always says "unable to extrude selected objects". It is autocad 2004. :)

[David Epperson]

If I remember correctly the 2d shape needs to be a closed polyline in the plane of the current UCS. (the last part may not be absolutely required in the newer versions).

[Jeffrey Makiel]

David hit the nail on the head. If you draw the box using the line command, it won't work. You must either use the rectangle command or the polyline command. Also, all lines must be in the same plane. That is, each line's start and end vertex must share the same z coordinate.

If the lines are in the same plane, another option is to turn the four line segments into a 'region' using the region command, then extrude the height with the extrude command. The region command sort of glues segments (straight and curved) together as one object as long as the end of each line touches the beginiing of the next line and the result is a closed object.

Lastly, you can just use the Box command (Draw>Solids>Box) and follow the prompts on the command line.

cheers, Jeff :)

[Ed Labadie]

You can make your basic box using the "line" command.
Then use the polyline edit command to convert the line into a polyline.
Its' in the modify pulldown menu , select "object" then "polyline.
Pick one of the lines in your box.
your command line string should read like this:

Object selected is not a polyline
Do you want to turn it into one? <Y>
Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype
gen/Undo]: j
Select objects: Specify opposite corner: 4 found
Select objects:
3 segments added to polyline

If your Autocad has the "Express tools" package, there is a polyline join command included that makes it even easier to convert lines to polylines and join them.

Ed