HIi've made a surface using loft, but when i tried thicken, it says that it can't be executed because it intersects itself.. is there a way to avoid this? i tried to take the edges of what should be my thickened surface, but when i draw the lines so they form the contour of the surface, there is just a bunch of lines and no surface is actually formed.. when i try to draw a simple triangle on the xy plane, the same happens, i see the contours, but no plane is formedcan somebody help me?thank you very much!grtz,niels

Could you post the drawing so we could take a look at it?
 
What version of AutoCAD are you using by the way?

http://img98.imageshack.us/i/probleemke.jpg/

as you can see I managed to thicken it by reducing the thickness i wanted to have, on the front of the pic you can see the contours I was talking about, the upper edge is the curve of the surface i wanted to thicken, the lower edge is the same curve copied, but adapted so both upper and lower curve meet on the right side, on the left side i've drawn a vertical line, to create a closed surface, but no surface is formed...thanks for your help,niels

and I'm using autocad 2010

Unfortunately the website is blocked by our IT department's Internet policy.

This help, John? I don't have time to reply now, or I would.

@hawdesigner:I can't see the image you've posted, i don't know about you john? i want to try to upload it myself, but i don't know how i have to do that, it needs an url, so i have to upload it to the internet anyway?

I do not see an image either HAWD.
 
Degoos: Upload your image here at the CADforum so everyone has easy access to it.

@John: I would like to upload an image, but when I press the insert image button, it asks for an url, so I have to insert an internetadress there i guess?and when i do so with the link I've allready posted here, it says "error in inserting object in current location".... but the problem with forming planes is solved, when I extrude or sweep a line like you said, i can form planes now. I thought that when you draw a rectangle, the surface bounded by the rectangle is automatically formed like in sketchup, but i guess autocad doesn't automatically do this or hasn't a command to fill a boundary?I still don't know how to avoid the intersection problem in the thicken command, but there probably isn't a way?thanks for the help!niels

You avoid the problem by creating good geometry.  Just because AutoCAD will let you intersect a polyline with itself in 2D doesn't mean it will allow you to turn it into a 3D solid, surface or mesh.
 
When a line is extruded it is referred to as a surface.
 
I for one would not expect AutoCAD, created by AutoDesk, to perform in the same fashion as SketchUp, created by Google.  Why would anyone assume the two programs would behave in the same manner.  That would be like expecting a Mac to perform like a PC.  Not in my universe.
 
Re: uploading images.  This website does not make it easy but I do not recall being asked to provide an URL.John Connor2011-03-08 12:52:44

My bad, I'm pretty new with 3d programs, actually autocad en sketchup are the only ones I can work with, so I mentioned it, because it was the only example I knew, but I understand your point. Obviously I can't just upload images because I'm a new user and I don't have enough posts:Images can be added to your posts, if the forum administrators have allowed uploading (after several postings of yours) of images you can use this to upload an image or attach file from your own computer into your message. However, if image uploading is not available then you will need to link to the image that needs to be stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.mysite.com/my-picture.jpgFor this topic, all my questions are answered, thanks for all the help!Niels

Read: Uploading an ImageI hope this helps.