2013

3D Extrude Tool 283
Turning extrudes on and off
EXTRUDE ON/OFF
Once a shape or other object has been extruded, there are only limited modifications
that can be made to the original object with the extrusion in place. For example, if
you've extruded a shape, it's not possible to then edit that shape in the
SHAPE EDITOR
TOOL
because it's no longer a simple 2D shape that you can interact with. However,
using this control you can temporarily turn the extrusion off, so that you can see and
modify the underlying object using other tools, before turning the extrude on again.
After making a modification and turning the extrusion on again the extrusion is re-
applied to your modified 2D object, with all the same 3D attributes that it had when
you turned off the extrude.
Note that in some cases if you dramatically change the form of the object while the
extrusion is turned off (such as changing it to a completely different type of object),
the 3D extrude attributes you applied may not be preserved. In such cases you
should be able to use PASTE FORMAT/ATTRIBUTES to copy the attributes from a copy
of your original extrude before the modification. See Copying styles: Paste attributes
(on page 128).
Extrusion depth
The easiest way to adjust the depth of an extrusion is to simply click and drag on it, as
described above. However, you can also use the slider on the left of the
EXTRUDE
TOOL
InfoBar to adjust it. Make sure that EXTRUDE DEPTH is selected in the dropdown
list to the left of the slider (this is the default setting) and then use the slider to adjust
the extrude depth. The current extrude depth is shown in a numeric field to the right
of the slider, and you can also enter extrude depth values directly into that field to set
an exact extrude depth.
Bevel Type & Size
The bevel type determines the profile of the extruded side of your 3D shape and of its
edges and corners. By default it's set to rounded which gives a flat side with rounded
corners. The bevel type dropdown list contains a large selection of different bevel
types you can choose from. You can adjust the size of the bevel using the slider to the
right of the bevel type list. To the right of the bevel size slider is a numeric field
showing the current bevel size and you can enter exact bevel sizes into this field.
An alternative shortcut to adjust the bevel size is to drag on the side of the 3D object
holding "Ctrl" (while in the
EXTRUDE TOOL).