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In a 2D app like Photoshop or GIMP, you can add a stroke to an object, and an outline is created for it that's of even distance around the shape. I want to do this for an irregular mesh in Blender.

For regular meshes like circles, spheres, squares and cubes, everything works well - E, S, scale out the extrusion. But for irregular shapes, I'm stumped. 2D 'E' extruded/scaled out.

This 'E' was selected, then E, S, mouse-dragged out (median point center). It doesn't border the original 'E' at all, and I wouldn't expect it to. Is there an option/add-on that allows for an extrusion at a set distance from the original mesh?

OroNZ
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    Scale in this won't work as you expected. Try scaling along normals (Alt+S) or try using Mesh Offset Edges addon – Mr Zak Jan 15 '18 at 21:57
  • Why not use bezier curves? – Duarte Farrajota Ramos Jan 16 '18 at 00:03
  • I'm not clear on what you want to do, It seems like the inset tool might be an option see: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/35205/offset-for-mesh/35268#35268. Also try: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/38781/how-to-add-outline-to-text/38784#38784 –  Jan 16 '18 at 03:53
  • Maybe even this link:https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/93375/how-can-i-create-text-with-a-black-outline-as-seen-in-anime-subtitles also there is a big [search] box at the top of the page to look for questions and answers. –  Jan 16 '18 at 04:01
  • @Mr Zak: Yep, tried that. Alt-S only works on 3D meshes. I'm after a 2D 'stroke' effect. – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 05:26
  • @Duarte: Curves are a possibility, but there would need to be a lot of pre-clean-up. I'll look into it. – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 05:28
  • @cegaton: Provided the mesh is good, this will give me an inward stroke. But that's a big 'provided' - Fonts converted to mesh generally create horrible geometry. I may have misled people in thinking I wanted a solve for text specifically. No - this is for any irregular 2D mesh, like an inkblot. Primarily, I want an outer-stroke solve. I want to create an even-distance outline. Immediately you can see problems with concave meshes: edges will overlap, causing a bad case of geometry ugly. Thanks for the search tip. I used it. Didn't find what I was after. And here we are. – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 05:40
  • Alt+S works on any meshes. Not only 3D. I don't have any idea what is "stroke" effect in this case but curves could be a way to go if going without addons. Other than that as I already said Mesh Offset Edges addon is solution for case mentioned by you below the answer – Mr Zak Jan 16 '18 at 10:13
  • @Mr Zak. Alt-S works on faces. If your mesh only has one face (like a circle or some other flat mesh), Alt-S does nothing. It might move the mesh around, but the mesh doesn't change. If the mesh has a number of faces in 2D (flat) there's no predicting what Shink/Fatten will do, but it will try and create volume, not area. I will take a look at that add-on a little later :) – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 19:08
  • @Mr. Zak, cegaton: Well, no amount of searching in the world will help if you don't have the right search terms, and I didn't use the word 'offset' :( Thanks for your help, guys. Offset Edges gets me close to what I'm after with the least amount of post-work. Thanks for your help :) – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 20:23

1 Answers1

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Edit:

This script can apparently be used to stroke edges outward:
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Modeling/offset_edges

If, for some reason, you can't use the script, you can use the workaround in my old answer.

Old answer

This is just a workaround. Find an add-on if you have to do this frequently.

1 - Extrude the shape

2 - Select one face on the top and on the bottom

Select

3 - Select linked flat faces

Select linked
This should select everything on the top and bottom.

4 - Select inverse

Inverse
This will select the rim edges

5 - (optional) Extrude, don't move them and Enter

6 - Shrink/fatten

Fatten
You should see this result:
result

7 - If necessary, delete unneeded geometry

Select one face on the top - Select linked flat faces - Select inverse - Delete!

Reinis Mazeiks
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  • Yep - You're showing a standard extrude operation, and I'm aware of that operation. What I'm after is a border-extrude. Create a circle. Tab into edit. Select all. Now, press E, and immediately press S. That will extrude the circle outwards (or inwards) into a 2D ring, with an even distance from the original circle. I want to be able to do that... only with an irregular shape. – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 03:03
  • @OroborosNZ oooh, sorry. I misunderstood. If I find nothing better, I'll delete the answer. – Reinis Mazeiks Jan 16 '18 at 03:27
  • @OroborosNZ, I updated the answer. It's just a workaround, but it should work! And I apologize for thinking you didn't know the extrude operation :P – Reinis Mazeiks Jan 16 '18 at 03:53
  • Yes I think this works. You can also (sometimes, depending on your mesh), after extruding on the Z axis, enter face select mode, then Alt-click on one of the "rim faces" to get a face loop, which can then be extruded and then shrunk/fattened. This is just a different and possibly quicker way to select the relevant faces. But it would be nice to have an "extrude and shrink/fatten" option that worked this way for a selection of edges, rather than a selection of faces. – risingfall Jan 16 '18 at 05:09
  • @R.M. No need to apologise :) Blender is hugely complex, and sometimes even experts (which I'm not) get blindspotted by some feature or other. This is not a simple solution: what I'm after will require some pretty complex math behind it, or a multi-step workaround. If this isn't a built-in feature, it'll be an add-on, or I'll need to work in curves. Fun times... – OroNZ Jan 16 '18 at 05:47