Smart Extrude

Smart Extrude extrudes polygons and works out what that means for the mesh:

• Out into free space: a plain extrusion.

• Into the mesh: a cut, like a boolean subtraction: a pocket, a notch or, all the way through, a hole.

• Out into other geometry: the two are joined.

The result is one undo step, and only the cap stays selected, as in Max.

Using it

• Smart Extrude in Edit Polygons: drag along the normal (Ctrl for steps), or type a distance in the redo panel.

• Shift+drag selected polygons with the Move tool. Drag freely, or on the gizmo: an arrow extrudes along that axis in the current Transform Orientation, a plane handle in that plane, the center ring freely. Snapping works as in a move.

Transform Orientation

The gizmo follows the Transform Orientation menu in the viewport header: Normal aligns it to the selected polygons, Local to the object, Global to the world.