Extrude modifier - add an axis direction gizmo

[Tupaia]

Hi!

Some improvement for the good old Extrude modifier:

1) It should have a freely rotateable sub-object "Axis", which defines the extrusion direction.

As of now, it can only extrude in Z.

If spline shapes don't lie on the XY plane (which can often happen when imported from CAD apps) the fumbling begins with rotating them right in subobject mode, or with an XForm modifier.

2) An additional 'automatic direction' mode could derive the extrusion direction from checking the average plane of the spline points. Softimage had this feature in it's Extrude operator.

3) Output can be 'Patch', 'Mesh', 'NURBS'. What about 'Poly'?

Thanks!

[Tupaia]

Btw., in the old NURBS toolset, something similar already exists since a long time.

Create a NURBS shape, extrude it with the "Create Extrude Surfaces" tool - there are X, Y, Z buttons for the extrusion direction.

These should be there in the classic Extrude modifier as well, including a freely transformable axis.

Thanks!

[michael_spaw]

Agreed.

-Michael

[Tupaia]

Cool, thanks!!

[lightcube]

I think this is a good idea.

For a plugin I wrote that is similar to extruding splines (but specialized) I added a few options for this the might be useful to this idea. First I think that adding a specific gizmo offers to most control and is important. But a few convenience options:

Vector From:

• Pivot (current node transformation)
• World
• Sub-spline Segment (averaged with adjacent segments)
• Other Node Pivot (select node)
• Gizmo

From here, give option of Axis:

• X/Y/Z
• Reverse Axis checkbox

Bold are defaults to match legacy: Extrude from Local Z.

[Tupaia]

While you are at it, please also add snappable start- and endpoints to this new Gizmo (a yellow line i suppose), so that the extrusion direction and length can be snapped to something!

Quite a few other Modifiers could need snappable Gizmos, btw.

Thanks!!