Geometry & 3D node
Extrude Path
Sweeps a closed outline along Z into a solid — the 2D to 3D bridge. Depth is the full thickness, centred on Z = 0, so the shape stays on the plane it was drawn on. Caps closes both ends with a triangulated fill; off leaves an open shell, which is what you want for an extruded outline or ribbon. Normals are computed, so it shades correctly straight away.
Inputs
| Port | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| PointsThe closed outline to sweep, in order around its edge. Same rules as Triangulate — concave is fine, winding does not matter, Z is ignored, duplicates are cleaned. | structure | — |
| OrderHow the points become an outline — the answer to “why does my cloud produce nothing”. Convex Hull wraps the cloud in its boundary, so ANY scatter becomes a shape. As Given trusts the points to already walk the edge: right for outlines, empty for a scatter. Radial sorts by angle, keeping concave detail. | int | 1 |
| DepthThe FULL thickness in Grafit units, centred on Z = 0 — Depth 0.4 spans −0.2 to +0.2. Centring means extruding never shifts the shape off the plane it was drawn on, so nothing downstream needs to compensate. | float | 0.2 |
| CapsOn closes both ends with a triangulated fill — a solid. Off leaves an open shell of walls only, which is what an extruded outline or a ribbon wants. Caps cost two extra fills, so leave them off when nothing will ever see the ends. | bool | true |
Outputs
| Port | Type |
|---|---|
| Geometry | structure |
| Vertex Count | int |
| Triangle Count | int |
How It Works
Extrude Path sweeps a closed outline along Z into a solid — the 2D to 3D bridge.
Depth is the full thickness, centred on Z = 0, so the shape stays on the plane it was drawn on rather than growing off to one side. Caps closes both ends with a triangulated fill; turning it off leaves an open shell, which is what you want for an extruded outline or a ribbon.
Normals are computed, so the result shades correctly straight away.
Use Cases
- Logos and glyphs — A traced or drawn outline becomes a solid object.
- Extruded ribbons — Caps off, and an open outline becomes a wall following the drawing.
- Signage — Flat vector shapes given thickness for a lit 3D Scene.
- From the camera — Image Trace to Extrude Path turns a hand-held drawing into geometry.
- Before a deform — An extrusion is the classic input for Curve Deform.
Tips
- Depth is centred, so the object's midplane stays where the outline was.
- Caps off plus Shell is a different, often better, way to get a thick outline.
- Simplify the outline first; extrusion doubles whatever point count you feed it and adds a wall per segment.
- For extruded type specifically, use 3D Text — it has a hole-aware triangulator built for glyphs.
Open Extrude Path in the interactive catalog →
Extrude Path is one of 381 nodes in Grafit Pro.
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