I am using Blender to design for 3D printing. I have a tube that is offset on all 3 axis. I want to extend the length of the tube on one end, keeping the original angle the same.
Using translate (G) and extrude (E) the angle of the original tube changes.
Thanks for the tips!!
If the tube is already aligned with an axis, you can press (G) and then choose the axis (X,Y or Z) to move the selected in the desired axis.
Pressing G without defining the axis will move the selected in the horizontal and vertical axis of your view.
Alternatively, you can create a temporary face to cap off the tube and then extrude it, It should move in the normal direction of the face right after hitting extrude (E).
Using custom orientations will help with extrusions too. You can save the transform orientation of a selected edge, vertex or face, to a custom slot. So you can use it later.
Or select the end you want to move change your translation orientation from global axis to local and do it that way
Alternatively pressing G then Z, Z will do this as well, the first press of Z will align to global axis while the second is along the local axis.
Well, none of the suggestions did quite what I wanted. I admit I’m not very good with Blender.
I figured out a work around. I copied the original tube and moved it so new tube was at the end of the original where I wanted to extrude from. I can extrude the verts and then move them to match the angle of the copied tube.
Just learned this trick yesterday from https://gumroad.com/chrisplush- Select the loop that you want to move. Hit G then G again to slide back along the length. Hit C and it will lock in the direction and then you can slide it out along the direction that you want along the angle that you want- similar to extending surfaces in CAD software.
That is the best so far, but it does not seem to allow the tube to extend beyond its original length.
You didn’t say you wanted a new tube along the same angle.
If the screenshot you posted is what you wanted then all of the methods above should have worked with only minor adjustments to account for the new tube being separate.
I figured out what I was doing wrong. I originally copied a tube where I had modified the end to square up with one of the axis so it would sit flat on the print bed. When I selected the verts on the end, the resulting face was not at a 90 degree angle to the tube. It was extruding correctly but at a wrong angle.
As I said, I am not very good with Blender.
