I know what one -could- do with it, but to trouble shoot your situation, it kinda requires to know what -you're- doing.
I was trying to make sure you weren't trying to make the surface of a cone, with an inclined line, or anything similar that requires the axis of revolution to pass through the line itself at any point.
That had always caused an error for me, and figured I'd verify the geometry.
If you are trying to revolve a line around an axis that does not intersect, I am not sure what could possibly be the problem. Since the solid editing tools are not working, maybe create the shape using solids, then explode the solid to achieve the required face that you would have otherwise created via revolving 2d geometry.