Learn/Drafting/Solid Modeling Tools
Extrude
At a glance
- Turn any closed sketch face into a solid prism
- Optional twist — applies a helical rotation along the extrusion axis
- Blind, symmetric, or through-all depth modes
- Join into existing body, cut away material, or keep as new body
Extrude (E) is the workhorse of solid modeling: click one or more closed sketch faces and push
them into 3D. Picked faces stack up in a removable list, so a plate and all its bosses can go up in
a single feature. Set the depth, click OK, and the feature lands in the history where the distance,
twist, and picked faces stay editable forever.
Setting the depth
The Distance field takes expressions and explicit units (0.5in, 12mm) and honors your
preferred units. Or skip typing entirely: drag the arrow gizmo in the viewport, or click an aligned
face on another body and the distance snaps exactly flush to it. Click the far face of a body and
JetCad3 nudges the depth slightly past it, so a cut clears all the way through cleanly.
Cut, Join, or New Body
The moment the preview intersects an existing body, an Operation dropdown appears: Cut subtracts, Join fuses, New Body keeps an independent solid. JetCad3 pre-selects the likely intent — a profile pushed clean through a plate reads as a through-hole and defaults to Cut — and remembers your last choice. See Boolean Operations for the multi-body picture.
Twist
Enter a Twist (deg) angle and the profile rotates progressively around the extrusion axis as it travels, holes included — twisted balusters, decorative pickets, and auger-like forms straight from a flat sketch.