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I am new to blender and I'm struggling with one feature; a strip of metal going near the top of the camera body (Fujifilm s4400). My problem is that the metal strip will not extrude to a continuous length because of the curve around the camera body. To add to that when I smooth out the model I get a gap where the strip is and it curves at the end leading to a hole in the model.

Could someone guide me with what to do or edit my .blend file so that I can observe the way you do things.

enter image description here

Here is the blend file if you would like to have a look:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=D1676DBCF8E08414!402&authkey=!ANRCxzBWbz75GiI&ithint=file%2cblend

kind regards,

Shane.

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  • $\begingroup$ Sorry Zeffii, I did try to add more than one image but because I'm new here, my account doesn't have the permissions to share more than 2 links I've changed the title too now $\endgroup$
    – Shane Lee O'Shea
    Commented Sep 21, 2015 at 8:23
  • $\begingroup$ Oh wow, I actually completely forgot that I have photoshop I'll get to it; and to answer your question I have the camera next to me so I am doing the modelling without blueprints $\endgroup$
    – Shane Lee O'Shea
    Commented Sep 21, 2015 at 10:30

3 Answers 3

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The extrude tool can be pretty confusing when you want to do something simple like this, but if you use the 'Extrude Region (vertex normals)' function in the Tools > Mesh Tools menu, you can do it. However, there is another tool that can handle your problem - 'Shrink/Fatten'.

What I do is extrude (e), but without actually moving the extruded faces (to cancel the move hit esc), then use shrink/fatten (alt+s) to move the faces along their normals.

Using Shrink/Fatten to simulate face normal extrusion

If you use Shrink/Fatten on its own, it won't actually create an extrusion, but can be used to move any existing face, edge or vertex along its vertex normals. I find it much less fiddly than invoking extrude along normals from the menu.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much, sorry for the late response I've had trouble with my ISP this has helped very much! $\endgroup$
    – Shane Lee O'Shea
    Commented Sep 25, 2015 at 22:53
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You can also use the inset tool to create something like that. Select the faces you want to inset, press I and play with the depth values.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Set Thickness = 0 to mimic "Extrude" $\endgroup$
    – parameciostudio
    Commented Sep 21, 2015 at 18:21
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for your response too; as I said to MrFlammy, sorry for the late reply I've had trouble with my ISP. I haven't tried this one yet because I've not long been able to get back to my computer. Just a quick question though, would this method be advisable for the job that I am trying to do? It looks like it may generate more geometry than the answer above? Looks interesting though so I shall give it a try. Once again, thanks for the reply. $\endgroup$
    – Shane Lee O'Shea
    Commented Sep 25, 2015 at 22:56
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Extrude is very counter-intuitive and kinda whimsical in Blender, especially when you want to extrude multiple connected faces. I found it really discouraging after using MAX and Maya.

Above answers give you most info you need, I'll add two things:

  • F6 menu after extruding is your friend
  • sometimes "use vertex normals" is the answer
  • sometimes you have to make sure the correct pivot point and transform orientation combination is selected in the bottom bar of the window (I wish I could tell you what the "correct" settings are)
  • sometimes it's important to apply object transform (rotation and scale) before extruding
  • sometimes it's important to recalculate normals on all vertices before extruding
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  • $\begingroup$ I am glad someone else thinks this, and I bet was hoping by now that the extrusion tool could do this simple thing. After all it has been 7 years. Sadly, I think they are going to dig down and keep extrude and shrink/fatten as they are. Probably because if they changed it 'the old people would get conf-u-u-u-u-sed'. $\endgroup$
    – osirisgothra
    Commented May 19, 2022 at 0:50

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