Extrude a boss and cut through it

Extrude pushes a sketch's closed profile straight out of its plane to make material. Cut does the same but removes material. Both are the same feature underneath; you can switch one to the other later.

Extrude a boss

1. Draw a closed profile and close the sketch (see Draw your first sketch). It stays selected.
2. Choose Extrude.

A 10 mm solid appears, "Extrude1" joins the history with its sketch indented under it, and the status bar says "Extrude1 added. Change its numbers on the right."

Which sketch is used: the sketch you just closed, or the sketch selected in the history. With nothing selected, PartCraft takes the most recent sketch that no feature uses yet. If there is none: "Make a sketch first: pick a plane, Sketch, draw a closed profile, Exit."

Set the depth and direction

In the right panel:

Type a number and press ReturnEnter or TabTab: the part rebuilds immediately. Mid-plane puts half the depth on each side of the sketch.

Up to a face, the next face or a vertex

• Up to face or plane: Up to takes a flat face (Pick, then click it) or a reference plane. A face parallel to the sketch gives an exact depth; a slanted one cuts the end on the slope. If the face is behind the sketch: "… Try Reverse direction."
• Up to next face: stops at the first flat face of the body the extrusion meets (curved faces are not supported here: it says so).
• Up to vertex: stops level with a vertex (click near the end of an edge) or a point feature.
• Offset from face: like Up to face, stopping Offset (mm) short of it (measured square to the face).

Two directions, taper, one contour

• Second direction (Blind): also extrudes Second depth (mm) to the other side of the sketch.
• Taper (°): the sides lean in as they go (negative: out), like a draft; one direction only.
• Regions: Pick regions, then click inside the loops to extrude; only those regions are used (a circle inside a square: click inside the circle for a cylinder, between them for a plate with a hole). All goes back to every loop. Up-to ends and Taper need the exact kernel.

Below these, Sketch dimensions lists the sketch's driving dimensions, so you can change the profile's sizes without opening the sketch.

Cut a pocket

1. Click the flat face you want to cut into. It highlights, and the right panel says Face.
2. Choose Sketch on this face (or Sketch in the toolbar).
3. Draw the pocket's outline, for example a rectangle, and dimension it.
4. Choose Exit.
5. Choose Cut. It starts as Through all: it removes material right through the part.
6. For a pocket, set End to Blind (a depth) and type the Depth (mm).

A cut goes into the material, away from the face you sketched on. If the status bar says "There is nothing to cut on that side of the sketch. Try the other direction.", tick Reverse direction.

A sketch on the pocket's floor follows the floor: change the pocket depth and the sketch moves with it.

Profiles with islands

A sketch can hold several closed loops. Loops side by side become separate bosses (or cuts); a loop inside another becomes a hole through the boss. For example, a rectangle with two circles inside extrudes as a plate with two holes.

To use only some loops, pick them with Regions (above); another feature can use the other loops of the same sketch.

Edit it later

• Click "Extrude1" in the history to bring back its settings.
• Double-click its sketch (indented under it) to open the sketch; close it to rebuild.
• See Change a part through its history for suppressing, rolling back, reordering and deleting.

Common messages

More in Troubleshooting.