i would help but its hard to understand whats wrong...

tell me all your active setting when trying to extrude

dg girl, did you get the problem resolved yet?

First, Go to Height - select Graphic/Keyboard

Now you can key-in your 3D extrude height.

If you are trying to extrude a line, you need to click on the icon on the left column, FIFTH from the top. Hold your left mouse key and select the FOURTH command, 3D Extrusion. Click on the line, and in prompts enter 9'-6"

Hope that helps!

Dearest greengoblin,

I am eternally grateful to you and will name my first born after you...

As he explained it in class, we were to the 4th one down on the left
side and then 3d extrusion and go to heights, yadda yadda and then magic would happen and I would have a wall.

Clearly, he was wrong.

thanks again!!!!!!!

I would have to say that Form Z is the biggest peice of poop software I have used.

Thanks

Perhaps you don't know how to "use" it. It's really one of the easiest modellers for architecture. Max is not as intuitive (although it's more powerful, with items such as dependancies and such). You have to give FormZ another go buddy.

No thanks, The little beep from the PC speaker scares me whenever there is an error and the UI is absolutly horendous. Maybe they should have stuck with developing it for the Apple instead of trying to port it to PC. Although it has gotten better with 4.0.

Ditto what Brim said.

The "little beep" is optional and can be turned off in the user preferences. The pc version has existed for at least 12 years and, having used both extensively, I don't see any problems at all with the pc version other than that it does not offer as many options for choosing colors as the mac version - but this is typical of mac vs. pc software.
Design geek-girl: your instructor may be a long-time user of FormZ. Many years ago the tools that are currently in the top row (parametric platonic solids and metaballs) did not exist, so the fifth row now was the fourth row then. There are also always 3 or more ways to do any operation in FormZ - your instructor's way is one and greengoblin's is another, and my way would have been to tell you to go to the heights menu, pick "custom", type in your desired height and then use the 3D modifier to create the wall as a 3D object with height right from the start (and check "add to menu" so that your custom height would be re-usable without retyping it later.)

I do it Ormolu's way. I never use the 'graphic keyed' way. That's one of the advantages to FMZ, you just click a few times and you have a nice wall. Max can do this now with it's AEC objects, but it's still clunky (FMZ works with a cheap Geforce, Max chugs along with a snazzy Quadro).
It's still a dog of a renderer, though.

hey dg girl, you're welcome, I had the same problem when I first started using Z, so I know exactly what your situation was.

Please also take Ormolu and trace's advice - it is indeed the more proper way to model when you know the program better. There are two commands called "3D extrusion", so be careful with it.

I'd also agree that FormZ is a great modeller and a good software to learn for architects. If you are fast in AutoCAD, just import the drawings and you'll have an accurate 3D model FAST.