---
title: "Extrude a face (pull it out or push it in)"
description: "Make a plate thicker, a wall taller or a pocket deeper by moving one flat face: tap Extrude, tap the face, Pull out or Push in, type the distance, Apply. 3 taps for 5 mm, measured; free, on a phone too."
canonical: https://speakcad.com/guides/extrude-a-face
published: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
publisher: SpeakCAD
---

# Extrude a face (pull it out or push it in)

> Make a plate thicker, a wall taller or a pocket deeper by moving one flat face: tap Extrude, tap the face, Pull out or Push in, type the distance, Apply. 3 taps for 5 mm, measured; free, on a phone too.

Half the changes after a test print are "a bit thicker" or "a bit deeper". Extrude does exactly that: it takes one flat face of the part and moves it along the way it faces, by the distance you type, and nothing else about the part changes.

## Steps

1. **Tap Extrude, then a flat face.** Tap Extrude in the rail, then tap the face to move: the top of a plate, the rim of an open box, the floor of a pocket, the end of a peg. The card shows the face's size, for example Face 80 × 50 mm.
2. **Pull out or Push in.** Pull out adds material, the face moving away from the part; Push in takes it away, the face moving into the part. Pull out 5 mm is the default.
3. **Type the distance.** Type the Distance in millimetres when it is not the default; the ± steppers nudge it.
4. **Apply.** Press Apply extrude. The part rebuilds in your browser and the chat says what moved: Added Extrude 1: top face of Plate (80 × 50 mm) pulled out 5 mm.
5. **Change it later.** Tap the extruded face: its card shows the Distance as one signed number, positive pulled out, negative pushed in. Type the other sign to turn one into the other.

## What Extrude does

Extrude pulls a whole flat face out, or pushes it in, by the distance you type; a curved face is an AI request. The face keeps its outline as it moves: rounded corners stay rounded, and a hole through the face stays open when you pull it out. Measured on the editor, making an 80 × 50 × 3 mm plate 5 mm thicker took **3 taps**: Extrude, the top face, Apply extrude (Pull out and 5 mm are the defaults). The size readout went from 80 × 50 × 3 to 80 × 50 × 8 mm.

## Pull out or push in

| You want | Tap | Then |
|---|---|---|
| A thicker plate | its top face | Pull out, the extra thickness |
| Taller walls on an open box | the rim | Pull out, the extra height |
| A longer peg | its end face | Pull out, the extra length |
| A deeper pocket | its floor | Push in, the extra depth |
| A shorter tab | its top face | Push in, the amount to take off |

## Extrude or Add?

**Add** stands a new shape on the face (a tab, a boss, a peg) where you tap, of the size you type. **Extrude** moves the face itself, whole. To make a plate thicker everywhere, Extrude its top; to put a 10 × 20 mm tab on it, Add.

## What it does not do

It takes a whole flat face, never part of one, and it has no Position rows: nothing is placed, the face moves where it is. A curved face is refused ("Extrude works on a flat face: tap a flat one, or ask the AI"), with a chip that writes the request for the AI into the chat. A face whose outline is very detailed, as on some downloaded meshes, can be too much to extrude by hand, and the card says so; that one is an AI request too.

## On your own STL

A flat face of a file you uploaded with no change typed extrudes like any other: the top of a downloaded bracket that is too thin, the base of a stand that should be taller. The [Edit an STL page](/edit-stl) shows the ways to open the file without an AI turn.

## What it costs

Shaping a part by hand (a hole and its screw head, a cut, an added tab, raised or engraved text, an extruded face, rounded corners, and copies in a row, a grid or a circle) and downloading what you shaped are free. Each AI request spends 2 credits, a download of AI work 4 credits, and G-code 5 more. Extruding a face is a hand edit: free, and so is the download of a part shaped only by hand, with a free account.

## About SpeakCAD

SpeakCAD is the most intuitive CAD for 3D printing: tap a face and type a size to shape a part with simple tools, or describe it to the AI, on your phone or computer, and download a print-ready STL, 3MF or G-code sliced for your printer.

SpeakCAD works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a plugin (an MCP server): ask the assistant for a part with its measurements and SpeakCAD's own CAD AI designs it, shows it in 3D in the chat and hands over a print-ready STL, 3MF or G-code sliced for your printer.

- Live demo, no account: https://speakcad.com/demo
- In ChatGPT, Claude and other MCP clients: https://speakcad.com/chatgpt-plugin, https://speakcad.com/claude-connector, https://speakcad.com/mcp-server
- Pricing: https://speakcad.com/pricing
- FAQ: https://speakcad.com/faq
- Site index for AI assistants: https://speakcad.com/llms.txt