Extruding equally along a path

Question

This is my first post on here. I've been using Blender for years and a lot of my questions have been answered here but I've been having trouble with something and I haven't found a solution. I'm trying to create a sidewalk for a road. I figured I would do this by extruding out along both sides of the road and then extruding up. However, the road is curved, and when I got to extrude the extrusion is not equal in all directions. I've searched for a way to do this on here but I haven't found a way to equally extrude all sides. Any advice? Or is there another way to do this?

Pic is of the road object.

Answer 1

You can try this, it might work for you.

1. In Edit mode, select the first edge of your road (Left or Right) using alt-click.
2. Duplicate (Shift-D), hit Escape, then split into a new mesh (P, choose "Selection").
3. In object mode, select the new object you created (should be a single line of connected vertices), tab into edit mode, and extrude along the Z axis. (A to select all vertices-->E to extrude-->Z to constrain to Z axis-->1 to extrude one unit-->Enter),
4. Tab into object mode then add a "solidify" modifier. Modify the Thickness to your liking - use a positive or negative Thickness to get it to extrude out to the direction you want.
5. Apply the solidify modifier.
6. Tab into edit mode and delete the upper/lower layer of vertices, or else move them up/down to the sidewalk thickness you prefer.
7. Do the same for the other edge of your road.

Should do the trick! At least it did with a sample curve I played with. I don't know if it's shaped like your road.

Edit: here is a screenshot of the sample I worked with:

I started with the light gray road mesh (which I actually created from a bezier curve), then I created the two light blue sidewalk objects using the steps described above.

Answer 2

Select both edges of your road.

Press E to extrude, and then Z to constrain to the Z-axis, and drag to the height that you want your sidewalk to be and left click.

Press E to extrude again, then Z again, and type .01 and press Enter

Now press Alt+S and drag and your sidewalk should extrude out evenly. Left click again when your sidewalk is the width you want.(sidewalk will be slightly tilted)

Then press G to move the edges, Z to constrain to Z-axis, and type -.01 and press Enter. This will move your outer edge back down to be even with the other side of your sidewalk.