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All of your suggested enhancements sound great David!

The other enhancement that has been suggested since my original post (and which I am intending to include in the initial version) is the ability to taper the extrusion. Bill's macro does allow this, but I am proposing additional options:

You will be able to specify an enlargement factor for both the beginning and end of the extrusion and the extrusion will be tapered accordingly.
.... or, if you wish for a non-linear taper you can specify a polyline as an 'enlargement profile' (e.g. you could model a fluted column with a slight bulge in the middle). The enlargement profile can either be stretched/compressed to the length of the path or truncated/repeated if it is longer or less than the path length.

Being able to vary the bulge/taper is an upgrade. With the classical columns and similar, as surface of revolution works fine, but only if the column is smooth. Being able to add flutes and ridges opens up new options whether working in historic preservation or creating new organic shapes for light fixtures. Very exciting!

I am pleased to announce that a new macro is now available from my web site.

The Extrude Macro allows you to extrude a profile along a path, and both the profile and the path can be defined in a number of different ways. Please take a few minutes to .

You can download the new macro from the .

I would like to thank both Melina Boukis and Mark Madura for testing and providing feedback during the development of the macro, and you will find some of the comments they made regarding the macro on the .

Not all the features I originally envisaged are included with this first version of the macro, but I believe it provides a reasonably comprehensive starting set of tools that I do intend to develop further with additional functionality in future.

Haven't tied it yet, watched the video, looks very good
Thanks

DaveR

Thanks David, this looks exceptional. I haven't tried it yet but the video makes it look quick and easy to use - great work!!

I concur with Josh's assessment of the existing Sweep macro. My biggest issue with it is figuring out the correct path direction to then draw the polyline so that the profile chosen gets extruded in the correct direction. I would like to see the use of a simple 2D drawing profile or polyline that defines the shape and then a simple polyline drawn in one direction that can define how the profile will get extruded.

The Sweep macro does the trick but I think if the Extrude macro can be less complicated for the creating of the extruded profile and then the pathway to make it all happen, that would be a big improvement.

Got into using DHS's Extrude Macro in more detail today and have to compliment David for a great macro. After initially being put off by the complexity of the macro settings and limited time to get the work done I quickly watched the first half of the Youtube video that was produced with the macro ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKtl7H7rCRU ) , jumped back over to DataCAD and managed to output exactly what was needed straight away - and it was so simple to use. Thumbs up to you Dave!