I have watched the tutorial video again, but still cannot understand why I can’t get the offset tool to offset the edges of my extruded boxes which I am trying to model into basic cabinetry. I just want to offset the bottom edges upwards along the blue axis in order to create a plinth at the base of the units, but every time I select the lines, then select the offset tool, it will only offer to offset the lines along outwards along the floor rather than upwards on the face of the cabinets. Very frustrating.
I have tried playing around with the axis origin and also using the arrow keys to attempt to select the path direction for the tool to work in, but it still won’t do it. Any suggestions?!
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to give me a suggestion.
You may be right but would you use Offset for any of this? You are more likely to have made the cabinet from a single cuboid block, drawn a line for the height of the plinth and then extruded it into the cabinet (or maybe copied the bottom line up). I guess my point was that there may be better or simpler ways for her to achieve what she wants that she may not have thought of.
Yes. Offset wouldn’t be the appropriate tool for defining the height of the toe kick/plinth which is why both Box and I suggested selecting the bottom edge and using Move/Copy. Then once the height is defined by the copied edge, Push/Pull to make the space under the cabinet.
I’ve just finished drawing the cabinets and I ended up using the measuring tool to create a guide to draw the plinth line and then push it inwards to create an inset plinth. It just bugs me that I thought the offset tool could be used to offset the bottom lines all at once without needing to draw them or coy them…but I guess copy is actually doing what I need it to do since they are all in line with each other and I’m not offsetting a door to create a frame for example.
It does sound from the verbal description that she has the lines in plan view and wants to lift that up. Here are three actions discussed: Offset, Move a copy, and Push/Pull.
Offset only works in a given plane defined by two or more lines (the tool won’t work on just one line)
Move a copy works, but leaves work to do to complete the solid.
Edit: but if these are lines in a cabinet that’s already drawn, moving a copy of the lines would do the job. As Dave’s illustration shows, push pull would then make the toe kick.
The only occasion in which you can use Offset on a (sort of) single line is with arcs and circles. But that’s because they are not truly circular but composed of a series of lines.
Maybe more specifically, arcs, circles, and curves are a collection of multiple edges welded together so Offset works on them as long as they lie on a single plane.
