3D offset, how do I do it?

[m_L]

I'm new to SU and I am trying to draw a product I am developing. The design needs to be vacuformed (hot plastic sheet pulled over a mold via vacuum). I have a complicated 3d contour that needs to have a 1/4 inch "thickness" of plastic added to it. Since it's not a simple 2D shape, I can't just use the offset function.. Is there a Ruby script somebody created that would get the job done? I would like to select a surface, select an axis such as "red", type in an offset and get a new surface created.

I can't just copy and move the 3D surface in my desired axis as, a sphere for example, would only gain "thickness" in the axis it was moved but no thickness gained in the perpendicular axises.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[Gaieus]

Hi Mike (and welcome to SCF)!

Please, have a look at JointPushPull and ToolsOnSurface plugins.

You mention "offset" but what you describe is rather the PushPull function (can be done with the first plugin linked) however to make it complete, the second one can do offset on curved surfaces...