ExtrudeTool

Aim

To have a simple way to give a profile path depth, using the mouse to manipuate the type of extrusion, similar to functionality in the 3D Box tool and in Blender.

Status

ExtrudeEffect implements something like this, although it doesn't handle shading (as shown below) automatically. At time of writing ExtrudeEffect is in SVN and accessed as "Extrude2" on the "Generate from Path" Effects menu. The older "Extrude" effect only connects points with lines, and the shape at either end has to be identical.

Concept

UI Bits and pieces

• Toggle button to specify if extrusion path replaces original or add to the document
• Radio buttons or drop-down select to choose shading options (darken extrusion, lighte extrusion
• Slider to control amount/subtlty of shading (how dark/light are the extrusions made, etc.)
• Options/defaults in preferences dialogue?

Useful code

tbnorth on IRC provided a python extension and .inx file which 'draws lines between vertices of two selected paths', which are archived at pastebin.