Add direction to Extrude Command

[ic198]

At the moment Extrude works perpendicular to the plane of the sketch. I would like a direction option (similar to that used when creating patterns) so that the Extrude can be along any straight line or axis that is not parallel to the sketch plane.

Sweep can be used to achieve a similar effect- but you cannot use an axis as a sweep path, and the sweep ends up the same length as the sweep path. With a direction option in Extrude, you would still be able to specify 'Distance' or 'To' limits.

[Josh_Hunt]

ic198, I like this but a few things need to be clarified.

How does it define the distance?

• Actual Distance along the "Direction"
• Perpendicular Distance from the sketch plane (how it works now)
• How would you like to control these 2 distance modes?
• Are there other definitions of Distance you can think about?

How does it react when a Taper is defined on the More tab?

[ic198]

Hi jhunt107

I think Distance would define an actual distance along the Direction- which you could say is also how it works now... If you wanted to define distance perpendicular to sketch plane you would create an offset plane and use To. I think that is the simplest way and I'd hate to see Extrude become too complicated- any thoughts?

Taper would define an angle from the Direction? I've never actually used Taper (though I just had a go with it now to try it and think how it could work). I guess it would create an error if the taper value was greater than the angle between the sketch plane and the Direction- but it will generate errors at the moment if you enter 90 degrees, or 89 degrees and a large extrude distance.

[luca_pinto]

Hi,

I think it would be useful have a new option (inside extrude feature) how we can specify the extrude vector (x,y,z, two point, face/plane normal, etc...)...like to NX.

Maybe add the same options for the Ruled Surface (Sweep) feature.

Thanks

 

[patrickberry]

This would be nice. Currently the workaround is to create a guide path and use Sketch instead. Obviously this means a lot more work.

[DRoam]

Just to clarify in case anyone has this question, here's how this would be different from a sweep:

We are only defining a direction for the extrusion, not a path or a distance.

The direction vector just defines the angle of the Extrusion axis. So the direction selector would only allow selecting an axis, a straight edge, or a single straight sketched line. The extents are still defined using the traditional Distance, To Next, To, Between, and All controls.

[anibMXZ7A]

In the extrude menu, it should be possible to choose the extrusion direction. This is done by specifying work geometry (both axes and plane normals) or geometry from other inactive sketches.

The sweep function comes close to fulfilling this function, but does not offer to continue the sweep past the path geometry limits.