Home › Lessons › 2026-10-12

Make a 3D I-Beam in AutoCAD with EXTRUDE

Lesson notes for the CAD Land video — the exact command, what it does, and how to repeat it on your own drawing.

AutoCAD · 2026-10-12

▶️ Watch the lesson

Watch on YouTube Subscribe

⌨️ Command used in this video

EXTEXTRUDE — Extrude 2D profile into 3D solidSee it in the command dictionary →

📝 How to do it yourself

Draw a closed profile — a polyline or a region, not four separate lines.
Type EXT and press Enter.
Select the profile and press Enter.
Type the height, or pick two points to define it.

ℹ️ What EXTRUDE actually does

Pushes a closed 2D profile into a 3D solid along a direction. The profile must be a closed polyline, circle, region or boundary.

When to use it

Use it to turn a floor plan into walls, a profile into a beam, or any outline into something with volume.

⚠️ Common mistakes

Extruding an open polyline — nothing appears or you get a surface instead of a solid.
Extruding the outline instead of the inner boundary and getting a solid block rather than a wall.
Forgetting DELOBJ setting, which controls whether the source profile is deleted.

🔗 Related commands

PRESSPULL LOFT SWEEP REVOLVE

🎬 Keep watching

MLEADER in AutoCAD — Arrow and Text in One Command2026-10-19 · lesson FLATSHOT in AutoCAD — Turn a 3D House into a 2D Elevation2026-10-17 · lesson THE NEW TESLA ROADSTER IN AUTOCAD2026-10-17 · lesson GRADIENT in AutoCAD — Colour a Robot with Smooth Fills2026-10-16 · lesson

See all lessons →