How to add/coat surface of an object?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Recently I just learned to use autocad 2014, as i need to do some 2d and 3d picture for catalog. 

Right now, i am able to extrude 2d object to 3d. but now i want to do some coating for the object (add color to surface). and the coating surface is appx 3mm.

I have no idea how to do it, and don't know wthat keywords should i look for. would anyone teach me how to do it? 

i attach the picture that i intend to do at last.

 

Thanks in advance

Yo

[PatrickHughes]

There's probably several ways to go about this. I think I would copy the profile, explode the copy, offset the profile linework by 3mm, trim, then treat the 3mm "shell" as a separate object for extruding. 3mm seems a bit thick, you may run into problems with offsetting into the corners.

[Anonymous]

Hi PatrickHughes,.

thanks for your reply. Personally i think the method you mentioned is fairly slow. I tried before, and it was very time consuming. I need to coat about 50 different types of object. 

Just wonder any other way to do it? Can either start from 2d pic or 3d pic. 

Thanks in advance

Yo

[PatrickHughes]

I saw nothing in your criteria that would indicate you were looking to do things fast.

Something a little quicker would be to make a copy of your extruded profile 3mm to the profile side, create an INTERFERENCE solid, then subtract the interference solid from the copy.

If you're looking to speed up the process over multiple drawing you could create an Action Recording.