Hi Rich_Art - probably you would not want to use Extrude since that punches things out only in one direction. If you want something that kind of hugs the surface contour and goes out along the surface normal in all directions instead of only one direction then Shell or Offset is the kind of operation to produce that result.

However, instead of using project it may be easier for that case to build a flat pattern and then use the new Flow command in v3 for producing the final result - see here for an example of how that works:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4530.4

- Michael