Extruding paths in Autocad’s 3d interface is one of the most common commands. We explain the whole process of construction and modeling in our Autocad 3d training courses.
For example, we wish to create a rubber gasket seal, like the one illustrated here.
From the View menu split the screen into two view ports. Make the left view a Top view and the right view an Isometric view.
Then select the Rectangle tool and in the Top view draw a rectangle 100 x 60mm, for example. Offset this inside by 5mm and again by 5mm.
Next select the Circle tool and create four corner holes, radius 3mm, as above left. You could also Fillet all the corners by 3mm using the fillet command. Now delete the middle rectangle, which only served as a guide.
Now we extrude our shapes: select the Extrude tool and extrude all the shapes by 4mm. You should see the depth better in the right-hand iso view. Use the Subtract tool to subtract the cylinders from the outer object – in effect creating the four holes. In the same manner subtract the inner rectangle.
Now, for final presentation, the gasket is ready to have materials and lighting applied to it.
Note that if your cursor disappears at any point, just tilt your drawing. And if your grid and X-Y plane become rotated at any point, just type UCS into the Command line, and choose W > Enter, to return to the World Coordinate System.
The 3d interface in Autocad is user-friendly and easy to learn, and we take time to teach a broad range of applications in our classes including modeling, materials, lighting and animation. See many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page. For more information there are lots of resources on the web, but try the Autodesk site to begin with: www.autodesk.com. Support options and user forums are also available from the home page.
Other related Autocad 3d Blog Posts:

• Autocad 3d introduction
• Autocad 3d modeling
• Autocad 3d blocks
• Autocad 3d commands
• Autocad 3d basics