Exercise 3: More Extrudes

Extrude the Rectangles

In this exercise, you'll extrude four rectangles by two inches symmetrically — and turn them into tubes.
Use just one extrude feature. What happens?

Don't forget: use the Tube Converter after extruding.

Looks a bit weird?

Click here after you try it

If you did the extrude like the instructions said, all the boxes probably merged into one giant piece.
In real life, you don't want parts fused together like this unless you meant to.

Can you find a way to use multiple extrudes to keep them separate?

If you need to restart, here's a quick video showing how to delete your bad tubes:

Example Solution

Click here after fixing your tube in the above activity

Doing four separate extrudes manually is way too much work.

Here's the faster way:

Delete your old extrudes.
Use the Extrude Individual feature script you installed in Stage 0.
(Hit Alt+C and type "extrude individual" if you can't find it.)

Using Extrude Individual lets you extrude multiple shapes individually in one step!

Also, if you click the "Bind" option inside Extrude Individual, you can force symmetry.

Exercise 3.1: Sketching Basics

In the last exercise, you extruded an existing sketch.
Now, you're going to make the sketch yourself.

When we sketch, we use rectangles to represent box tubes in 2D, and use dimensions and constraints to lock everything into place.

📺 Follow along with the video:

Key Sketching Points

Sketching Fundamentals

Dimensions control distances (like making a rectangle exactly 5 inches wide).
Constraints define relationships (like locking a rectangle edge to another).
Yellow dotted lines show automatic constraints — use them!
The Origin is your anchor. Attach sketches to the origin whenever possible.
Blue is bad — a blue sketch means it's not fully defined yet. Everything should turn black.
Less is better — use the fewest dimensions necessary to fully lock down your design.