The Extrude tool in Blender can take a 2D face like our profile and make it 3D by copying that face, and then adding all the supporting faces to connect the two. In the example of our profile pendant, after we extrude we will have two identical faces in the shape of the subject's profile—one for the top of pendant and one for the bottom. In addition, numerous faces will be automatically added to make up the sides of the pendant:
Before and after of extruding a face
The steps for extruding a face are as follows:
- If necessary, switch to Edit Mode using the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen.
- Use the icon to switching to Face Select mode:
Switching to face selection mode.
- Right-click to select the face you wish to Extrude.
- If necessary, click on the Tools tab on the Tool Shelf on the left side of the screen.
- Under Mesh Tools, look for the Add section and click on the Extrude Region button. You can also hit E on the keyboard as a shortcut.
- Move your mouse to increase or decrease the extrusion amount. By default, the system is extruding in the same direction as the face normal. When satisfied, left-click to commit the change. Alternatively, you can hit the Enter key:
Extruding to a 3D mesh.
Extruding to exact dimensions
When extruding, instead of using your mouse to size, you can also type in specific dimensions. Positive numbers will move in the direction of the face normal. A negative number will move backward:
Extruding by typing E 1.0 and by typing E -1.0
When extruding, instead of using your mouse to size, you can also type in specific dimensions. Positive numbers will move in the direction of the face normal. A negative number will move backward:
Extruding by typing E 1.0 and by typing E -1.0