Trouble with a boat

I am making a boat for a theatrical production and I am getting hammered on turning my nice surfaces into solids. The idea is to create a solid of the boat hull and then section it as needed to figure out the framing. I was trying to use the SLICE the command to get the solid skins and then use the UNION command to create a shape I could then subtract from a large solid block. I kept getting failures and Boolean failures from Auto Cad 2009.

I have attached a PDF for all to see. Any help would be great.

Thanks,

MGJ

BOAT.pdf

Cant you use the shell command?

I can not shell a surface as far as I know.

well the thing that threw up a red flag is you said solid surface. Is the object actually a solid? How was it drawn? Do you have specs that you drew this to or just a general shape?

From your pdf i dont see any reason you couldnt loft from the bottom to the top using the front and two rear vertical curves as guides.

Download a trial version of Rhino from McNeel.

Open the 3D dwg file with your curves, or use the command "Curve" to draw them from scratch.

Use EdgeSrf to create surfaces between 2,3 or 4 curves.

When the volume is closed, make a polysurface with the command Join.

Export as SAT and open in AutoCAD as a 3D solid.

You can of course also use the command Section in Rhino to create the frames there and import to AutoCAD.

are you sure its a solid?