In wings 3d you can extrude along normals, how do i do this in blender?
I have a cylinder and I want increase its diameter while maintaining the current height
It sounds more like you want to scale in 2 directions.
To scale in X and Y, select the object or in edit mode, the verts, then press s for scale, then shift z, to eliminate scaling in the z axis.
To extrude along normals, e for extrude, then esc, then alt-s.
Best of Luck!
[quote=“scrog”"]
In wings 3d you can extrude along normals, how do i do this in blender?
I have a cylinder and I want increase its diameter while maintaining the current height
[/quote]
I had this same issue. There is no way like in wings 3d. But there is a close alternative. Alt +S scales out along the surface normal…but also out from the center of the selected group of vertices:eek:.
In the first screenshot Alt+S did the trick, but only because of the “simplicity” of the model.
Crank up the complexity even just a bit, as with the 2nd screenshot and you’ll get something other than what you’d expect:yes:.
Now I could still be wrong:p. But I’ve asked this question here before, and the best answer’s including advice like spinning a single extrude…so you be the judge:no:.
edited afterthought: Sometimes, though, for reasons I don’t comprehend it will do exactly what you want it to. see screenshot3
Figured it out :yes:. When you go to extrude it will give you the an axis to extrude along. Cancel that, keeping the extruded faces though, THEN hit Alt+S…so far its work 100% of the time I’ve just tried it lol see example4!!!
Attachments
Thanks for the help.
I am not modeling anything right now, just getting to know blender.
I have another question is there a bridge function in blender ?
On the extruding along the normal question … one way I have found is to use the “E” mechanism to do a null extrude … (“E” then “ESC”) and then use the Manipulators … See:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Manipulators
In the Translate/Move widget, you can set the “Transform Orientation” to be be “Normal” and then the transform will occur along the normal of the selected parts.
pappy your suggestion ok when you want to extrude faces only one side of a mesh or if the selected faces have same normal direction. Make this extrude with Wings3D is a piece of cake, but with Blender i dont know how is the simpliest.
Maybe im wrong but the E ESC Alt+s combo imho a mistake. When you hit ESC you cancel the extrude operation, the the Alt+S just shrink/fatten the selected faces and makes some unwanted triangles and change the size of the edges on the selected faces like this:
The “E > Enter > Enter > Alt+S” combo also a half solution because the extruded faces will be larger or smaller then the original what extruded:
Where does one find or what does one mean by “transform orientation set to normal”? Is there a Wiki page or a button/toggle/setting I should look at?
Sorry … never mind … found it.