I want to use the extrude individual faces function to achieve the result shown in Image 1. However, it keeps merging like in Image 2.
Please let me know how to solve this issue.
+I understand that there has been an update that allows using the Extrude Individual Faces function without needing to use the Inset tool first. Could you please explain how I can do this without using the Inset tool?
The tool to extrude individual faces without having to inset them first is not a new update, it has been around for a very very long time.
It seems you confuse the Extrude Region and Move (or Extrude Faces if complete faces are selected) tool which has the shortcut E with the general Extrude tool which has the shortcut Alt+E.
If you use Alt+E a context menu opens where you can choose between different options: what you want there is Extrude Individual Faces:
If you do that and the three top faces have their normals all pointing in the same direction, it does not look different from the regular Extrude Faces at first glance:
But if you grab one of the faces afterwards you will see that the top three are not connected:
It is more obvious if the three faces are pointing in different directions, here using Extrude Individual Faces with Alt+E:
And this would be the normal Extrude Faces with just E in comparison:
