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Extrude questions

I'm just starting out with this software and it's not very intuitive at all especially when coming from fusion360.

Why can I not create one sketch with multiple features and have some extrude to cut and some extrude to add material? The only way I got this part drawn up was to create a sketch of my outline, then create a sketch of parts to extrude for adding material then another sketch for extrude to subtract material. Is that correct?
 
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Ken226

Alibre Super User
I'm just starting out with this software and it's not very intuitive at all especially when coming from fusion360.

Why can I not create one sketch with multiple features and have some extrude to cut and some extrude to add material? The only way I got this part drawn up was to create a sketch of my outline, then create a sketch of parts to extrude for adding material then another sketch for extrude to subtract material. Is that correct?

Yes. Alibre likes simple sketches, with more emphasis on the modeled features. The workflow is different, but you'll get used to it. For example, with Inventor I would fillet corners in the sketch. In Alibre, I've found that it's better done to the model itself after the extrude.

I came from Inventor, so there was a similar learning curve. Get used to using simpler sketches and extrudes, , but more of them.

It surprised me, but it's actually one of the things I hated at first but learned to like about Alibre. It makes it easier to locate specific features and sketches in the design explorer, and to edit downstream features without triggering a bunch of upstream errors. Particularly, when you get into really complex assemblies.
 
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HaroldL

Alibre Super User
If you haven't already done so, I would suggest watching all the training videos for whichever version you have. One thing to remember is not treat Alibre like any other CAD program you have used.
 
I've watched a few but i'm currently on this one

Here is a question.
I can't seem to extrude material the way I want to. I made a design, extruded it, put holes in it (not all the way through) then I did another sketch on the top of that model and want to extrude that. So like I want to 3d print something put a magnet or something in it and then print over it. But it would only extrude one direction (the direction of the first sketch) and added more to the base of it
I think i'm doing a terrible job describing it
 

Ken226

Alibre Super User
I've watched a few but i'm currently on this one

Here is a question.
I can't seem to extrude material the way I want to. I made a design, extruded it, put holes in it (not all the way through) then I did another sketch on the top of that model and want to extrude that. So like I want to 3d print something put a magnet or something in it and then print over it. But it would only extrude one direction (the direction of the first sketch) and added more to the base of it
I think i'm doing a terrible job describing it

There's a "reverse" checkbox that changes the extrude direction.

Or you can enter a negative value to the extrude distance to accomplish the same thing. All the "reverse" checkbox does is add a negative sign to the extrude value.

That answer assumes that I'm not totally misunderstanding your question.
 
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