Flip side to cut

[Mgła3]

When I have a profile, I should be able to cut the inside of it, or flip it to cut the outside. Imagine a large complex surface, and all I want to leave sticking up is a circle. I just sketch a circle and cut the exterior. This is basic functionality in Solidworks and should be a requirement of Inventor extrudes.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I think you are taking about asymmetric Extrude operation. One side joins but the other side cuts. Inventor has to do it with two Extrusions by sharing the sketch.

Many thanks!

[Mgła3]

No that's different. That's all still inside the profile you sketch. I want to cut outside the profile so that even if I only have a circle it will leave the circle and cut everything else out to infinity but at the depth I specify. I'm converting some parts and it's such a pain when so many features can't be done in the same method because it's not an option. Thanks for trying though.

[SBix26]

Yeah, I can see where that would be convenient.  But it's really not very difficult to project the outline of the part and use that to cut:

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Sam B

Inventor Pro 2024.2 | Windows 11 Home 22H2

[Mgła3]

I suppose my example wasn't as complex as it could have been. It was just the model that I had open in Solidworks at the time to provide an accurate example. As soon as the surface being cut has a bunch of chamfers off the side, or portions that are different depths, you end up making wild sketches that are way oversized to try to cut everything that may exist in the future, or you attach it to dozens of edges around the perimeter. It's not a very parametric way to model, and since any change blows up the convert surface and doesn't include added surfaces or chamfers or anything unexpected. Flip side provides a simple sketch and consistent result. I don't use it every day, but I use it enough to miss it when it's not there. 
This is just a random example, where I get a complex cut off of just 6 lines, a couple converted edges, and a mirror. To not miss all the chamfered edges I would have had to make all sorts of strange sketches in Inventor.

[chive34]

This is a really important missing feature and a huge drawback to basic functionality. Especially considered that a user needs to manually select all the closed profiles in a sketch to extrude. Why can't all loops or open lines be selected in a sketch? Why can't we choose which side of the sketch to cut on? 

[michiVSPDK]

I fully agree the user should be able to choose switch side the cut is on... internal or external of the closed loop sketch. Inventor please add this feature:)

[SharkDesign]

Inventor won't add the feature unless you vote on the idea in the ideas forum. 

It currently only has 3 people which suggests it's not that high up the priority list. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/extrude-cut-outside-of-a-sketch-boundary/idi-p/1342164...

[SBix26]

Here's the link again (the one above just took me to the Ideas forum main page): Extrude-cut OUTSIDE of a sketch boundary - Autodesk Community

I voted for it, so that's a 33% increase!

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Sam B

Inventor Pro 2026.1.1 | Windows 11 Home 24H2