The closest thing I can think of to "render" in 2D would be "superhatch" from the Express Tools. Use "Image" for the pattern type, and choose .bmps, .gifs, .etc that you can download from the web to use as materials.
I think true rendering requires a face or region to apply the texture or "look" you want. I think Drawf901151 is correct, you might need a face to use true rendering. Autocad has some trick feature pasting images, but that might not be applicable here.