I often come across a situation where I need to extrude several parts of a model for a specific distance X. The right click simplicity to repeat the action is amazing, but is there any way to have the initial distance entry taken into account when doing this?

Sorry if this is confusing, I am not sure I phrased it well. The other option would be to select all parts and perform the action, but when concepting in MoI, you have to evaluate an option and then go forward, so it often happens that you say "hmm" that looks cool, I want to do it on that other part as well. :))

(It's weird that you often expect more from the people or programs that you love most, that doesn't mean that you do not appreciate them.)

ps. for example fillet ops have that kind of memory I am talking about!

Hi nameless, re: extrude repeat same distance, the problem there is that the Extrude command uses the distance input to show feedback on what distance you're getting with the current mouse point.

So filling that same field in with a previous value would be very fragile since it would get erased by any kind of mouse movement over the viewport.

That's why it's different behavior from Fillet. Also Extrude finishes as soon as the distance is set while Fillet has an additional wait until "Done" is pushed (or you use right-click or Enter as a shortcut for "Done").

Maybe a way that could work for commands like Extrude is if you could right click on the field and get a flyout menu with the last several values that were used there during this modeling session. That kind of conflicts with the Cut/Copy/Paste context menu but maybe that could be a bigger menu with the values at the top and then Cut/Copy/Paste below that... ?

- Michael

I like the idea of this and understand the problems with current mapping so food for thought: would it be possible to say map the middle mouse click to a repeat with previous dimensions.
This is of course then similar to the Zbrush repeat on their modelling brushes.

Hey Mark and Michael,

I understand the issue (in general terms) with the command. So it's not possible to have a script like the quick circle one? Having at least a script option where you can just get the same extrusion with a single click would be super useful for people like me that concept using MoI. Now you have to eyeball a similar distance if you are not keeping notes or sample the distance during the extrude which can be tricky if you have filleted the extruded volume.

The idea of a list with your last inputs sounds wonderful too. It would give you the option to use a specific set of distances that gives consistency to a model visually.

@Mark - the middle mouse button click sounds like a better idea since it would be fewer steps. I'd like to experiment with that after v4 is wrapped up.

@nameless - if you want to have some predefined extrusion distances, that is possible in the current v4 beta using the newest UI control mechanism. Set up a keyboard shortcut like this:

extrude distanceinput=10

Then when you trigger that shortcut key, it will run the extrude command and set the distance input field to 10 which will finish the command. So set up several shortcut keys with different distances for the kind of thing you're describing.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

That's golden! It will be super useful to at least have a shortcut for a fixed distance extrude spam.

Many thanks!!!

I just tried it out. It's super quick when you want to pull out surfaces on a solid. It almost changes the way you use the tool. Just pick an interesting surface pattern on a solid, point and click- if it does not work visually, undo and try something different.

I know it sounds a bit silly to be excited for something like this but it really makes a difference for me ^__^ A simple direct way to do things almost encourages you to try stuff, and experimentation (combined with refined aesthetic appreciation) is the mother of interesting form.