Extrude
Key E; straight as a cut — Q.
How to do it
- Select a sketch or its contours — or press Extrude with nothing selected and click contours: they add up, and the bar above shows Profiles: N. A sketch you have just finished is already selected — the tool takes it at once.
- Type the Length into the field at the geometry or drag the arrow. The preview shows the body before it is applied.
- Enter applies, Esc cancels.
Pick contours (U) takes you back to picking contours after you have gone on to the size.
A region is picked by a click anywhere inside it, not only on its line: a click between a rectangle and a circle in it takes the ring, a click in the circle takes the disk. The region under the pointer is lit before the click, and a picked one is filled - its holes stay open, so you see exactly what will be extruded. A second click on a region lets it go.
Operation and direction
In the bar above:
- Add — material appears; Cut — it is removed; Intersect — only what is common with the body stays.
- To a length — one way; Symmetric — equally both ways from the sketch; Two sides — a length of its own each way, the second in the Second side field; for a cut through a body also Through all.
- Flip — the other way from the sketch. The length is always positive: this button changes the side, not a sign.
A cut that splits the body in two leaves both pieces bodies of the same part. To make a piece a part of its own — the right button on it -> Make a part.
Several contours — one operation
Pick three contours, and the timeline gets one row with three profiles. An edit opens all three at once, a delete removes the whole operation. A contour inside a contour becomes a hole; pick the inner one too, and it is extruded as an island inside the hole.
If it did not work
- The field is red and Apply is grey — the value is not allowed (zero, negative, not a number); the reason is written at the field.
- Cut or Intersect on the first sketch of a part refuses in words — there is nothing to cut yet: a body comes first.
- A contour cannot be picked — it is not closed. Open the sketch and join the ends.