Extrude Shape to FreeForm

Thanks, just realised that - wonder if that also has bearing on item 1 of

communities.bentley.com/.../97458.aspx

OK, so is not gd enough to just rotate Adraw compass so xy is parallel to the Shape, so z is perp to it and parallel with the direction of extrude. It also has to be rotated so z +ve points 'back into the screen' = the direction of extrusion (if Fixed Height>Height is +ve). Any other Adraw compass rotation produces ERROR - the baseshape is perp to the sweep direction.

Is that correct?

If so, how fussy is that? BD 'knows' it's going to extrude in one direction only - so why need Adraw to confirm it?

I checked Extrude Shape to Linear Form and it's totally indifferent to Adraw compass rotation.

So why can't Extrude Shape to FreeForm be equally indifferent?

OK, so is not gd enough to just rotate Adraw compass so xy is parallel to the Shape, so z is perp to it and parallel with the direction of extrude. It also has to be rotated so z +ve points 'back into the screen' = the direction of extrusion (if Fixed Height>Height is +ve). Any other Adraw compass rotation produces ERROR - the baseshape is perp to the sweep direction.

Is that correct?

If so, how fussy is that? BD 'knows' it's going to extrude in one direction only - so why need Adraw to confirm it?

I checked Extrude Shape to Linear Form and it's totally indifferent to Adraw compass rotation.

So why can't Extrude Shape to FreeForm be equally indifferent?

Unknown said:

Is that correct?

Yes.  That is correct.  I agree it is rather fussy and probably should be indifferent to which face the accudraw compass is aligned.  Although in theory, I could see a case where I might want to chose the exact axis of a rotated compass.  Perhaps that unusual case where there is ambiguity is the reason for the required precision in the settings.  Perhaps it is worth filing a Change Request.

-Travis

Well I wd agree, if a FreeForm is capable of extruding in a direction not perp to the base Shape. But AFAIK any such attempt gives that ERROR message. Am I missing something?

The dialog won't accept a negative extrude Height either AFAIK - correct?

Which way it decides to extrude is also a mystery - thought it was 'back into the screen' but not so sure now. It only consents to extrude one attempt out of five so it's hard to test - too many possible mistakes to handle at once!

I can't fully follow the English here.

But I have no problems extruding to Free Form in both directions +1000 / -1000 in an iso view.

But I don't think that it can be extruded non-ortogonal to the shape. And I suspect this is to make Quantify to work.

Solid by extrusion can extrude non-orogonal.