![]() ![]() The result will not be perfect because the Extrude tool evaluates the depth of a shape using an absolute reference point and by relative scale-in English, the square will not be extruded as far as the plus symbol, but this is okay. Here comes the drama in the next steps you’ll witness what happens when two shapes are selected and you choose the Extrude tool and then drag on the face of either shape. Select both rectangles and then choose Arrange>Combine Shapes>Add Shapes. You don’t have to move a shape to drop a copy! See Figure 4. Right-click now to drop a copy of the original. While holding Ctrl, drag one of the corner rotation handles (the upper right is good) until you see a preview of the rectangle perfectly vertical, in 90 degree opposition to its original orientation. Here’s the tricky move to turn the rectangle into a perfect plus sign: select the rectangle and then click on it with the Selector tool to put it into Rotate and Skew mode. While you’re on the General page, also set the Nudge size to 1 pixel (0.01 inches if your choice of units is inches). ![]() On the General page, make sure the Angle constraint is a value of 90 or an even fractional amount of 90, such as 30 or 45. Press Ctrl+Shift+O to display the Options panel. ![]() Put the aspect ratio back in the locked state or you’ll get some unexpected (and unwelcome) surprises in the future. In Figure 2 you can see that the new shape is 3 times wider than the original square, which by no coincidence is the width of the extruded vertical arm to the space beacon. Type 300 in the W number box and then press Enter on your keyboard. It’s locked by default, so simply clicking on it turns it off. Select the duplicate and then on the Infobar, release the lock aspect ratio button to the right of the W and H number boxes. Right-click and drag a duplicate (release the mouse button about ¼ inch above the original). You need this specific dimension because you’re going to extrude the shape and the values I provide here later are intended to scale properly to the original size of the shape(s). Give this shape no outline width and a golden color. If your dimensions are set up for pixels, this would be about 115px, displayed in the W and H fields on the Infobar. In a new document, choose the Rectangle tool, and then while holding Ctrl to constrain the shape to a perfect square, drag diagonally until you have a square that’s about an inch and a quarter (1.25”). You’ll need to draw a square for the front axis projecting toward the audience, and a plus symbol, which can be achieved by adding two rectangles, like this: Through these steps I’ll show you how to calculate depth with two shapes, so when they’re extruded, they have the same orientation and perspective, and can be put together to make a more complex object than merely extruding a single shape Creating the Two Shapes It doesn’t have to be for extruding text alone! ![]() What I’m trying to show in this tutorial is that there are some un or under-explored things you can do with Xara’s Extrude tool. Okay, I’m calling this object you’re going to create a “space beacon”, only because it looks science fictiony, like that monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it probably would make a nice star for a Christmas tree, and have other uses. ![]()
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