Extrusion problem: Extrude along face normal

[Anonymous]

(Not sure if this is posted in the correct forum so if it needs to be moved, please do so.)

Hi there,

I haven't really posted before, but I love Fusion 360 so much and I've recently been coming across a problem that's hindering placement of certain design elements on a curved or round surface.

I'm well aware that you can taper an extrusion and all of that is fine, but I wish that after projecting a sketch onto a cylinder or other rounded surface, or around a corner, the extrusion would adhere to it's surface normal when pulling it out or pushing it in. I have a picture (crudely drawn) to demonstrate this. As someone with apoly modeling background, it's something you can do very easily in Maya or Max, but I know these solid body modeling tools are very different beasts so I wasn't sure if it was a possibility at all, or if it's already in the software I just can't seem to find it. (Despite having looked ALL over the program)

Here's the image:



So if this suggestion is utter madness, or if I didn't explain something good enough, just let me know. Thanks 😄

[TrippyLighting · Accepted solution]

Nothing beats the charme of some well done hand sketches!

You can actually do this by using push-pull. While "Extrude" is linear as you skeched it so beautifully, Push-Pull honors surface normals.

[Anonymous]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude! You rule. You basically explained something that had been going over my head this whole time, which was that split body, and split face work completely differently. I've been using split body this whole time for like everything.

You have made me the happiest. All of the good kharma to you sir!

[wilkhui]

Just a note to add - if you're in the Patch environment you can get this type of result by using Create -> Offset.

Indy