Cutting Out Volumes

Question

I'm VERY new to Blender here. Now I've been trying to design a set of VERY simple 3D models, comprised of notched cubes occluded by a sphere.

A research assistant who is more familiar with Blender suggested I add an intruding rectangular prism and cut out its volume from the cube using the Difference Boolean modifier, but I just find this unnecessarily roundabout and it doesn't allow for the dimensions of the notch to be properly controlled.

My hope is to so somehow subdivide the cube into 16 smaller blocks, and be able to simply delete blocks out of the overall shape. I figure this would involve some sort of Extrude command, but I'm not sure how I'd do that.

The "local" and "global" models I've included in the attached image are hand drawings of the models I had in mind.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Option 1 - I believe the Boolean Modifier will be the simplest approach here, and give the greatest flexibility.
If you use the snap options (documentation here) it provides a very high level of control. It would be possible to create tho cube to subtract, then use snap to center it precisely on the corner of the cube you wish to subtract from. I've found this sort of approach quite useful in several situations.

Option 2 -
Looking at your models, only one side is effected, so it would be possible to model with extrusions as follows:

1. Select the face you desire to model the feature in. (Note, ctrl-tab in edit mode will allow you to change to face-select instead of vertices)
2. Move the face back by however far you want the feature to be inset. (press g then x, y, or z for the appropriate axis. You can enter a numerical value as well)
3. Subdivide the face the desired number of times (w brings up a menu, subdivide is at the top. repeat it twice for sixteen smaller blocks on the face)
4. Select the faces you want to stand out from the side of the block.
5. Press e to extrude them.