Text Extruder — Blender 5.1 Extension

A Blender extension that creates 3D extruded text objects with configurable chamfering and independent materials for the face, edges, and chamfer surfaces.

Features

• 3D text extrusion from any text string with adjustable depth
• Chamfer/bevel on all edges with configurable width and segment count
• Three independent materials — assign different colors, metallic, and roughness values to:
  • Face — the front and back readable surfaces
  • Edge — the extruded side walls
  • Chamfer — the beveled transition surfaces
• Axis control — choose which axis the readable face points toward and which axis the text stands upright along
• Font selection — pick from any system-installed .ttf/.otf font via a dropdown, or browse for a custom font file
• Cross-platform font scanning — automatically finds fonts on macOS, Windows, and Linux
• Collapsible UI — organized into sub-panels that expand/collapse independently so the sidebar stays compact

Requirements

• Blender 5.1.0 or later

Installation

1. Download text_extruder.zip
2. Open Blender
3. Go to Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions
4. Click the dropdown menu (top-right) and select Install from Disk
5. Navigate to and select text_extruder.zip
6. The extension is enabled automatically

To uninstall, return to Get Extensions, find "Text Extruder" in the list, and click the remove button.

Usage

Opening the Panel

1. In the 3D Viewport, press N to open the sidebar
2. Click the Text Extruder tab

Panel Layout

The panel is organized into collapsible sections. Click a section header to expand or collapse it.

▼ Text Extruder
    [Create Extruded Text]     ← always visible at the top
  ► Text                       ← text content, font size, font selection
  ► Extrusion                  ← face-up axis, extrusion axis, depth
  ► ☑ Chamfer                  ← toggle + width and segment controls
  ► Face Material              ← color, metallic, roughness for front/back
  ► Edge Material              ← color, metallic, roughness for sides
  ► Chamfer Material           ← color, metallic, roughness for bevels

Creating Extruded Text

1. Expand the Text section and type your text. Choose a font size and optionally select a system font or browse for a custom .ttf/.otf file.

2. Expand the Extrusion section to configure orientation:

   • Face Up Axis — the axis the readable face of the text points toward (default: Y, facing the front viewport)
   • Extrusion Axis — the axis the text characters stand upright along (default: Z, characters point up)
   • Extrusion Depth — the thickness/depth of the text object
   • Face Up and Extrusion axes must be different.

3. In the Chamfer section, toggle chamfering on/off using the checkbox in the header. When enabled:

   • Chamfer Width — how far the bevel extends from each edge
   • Chamfer Segments — number of subdivisions (1 = flat chamfer, higher = smoother/rounder)

4. Configure materials in the Face Material, Edge Material, and Chamfer Material sections. Each has:

   • Color — base color (RGBA)
   • Metallic — 0.0 (dielectric) to 1.0 (fully metallic)
   • Roughness — 0.0 (mirror-smooth) to 1.0 (fully rough)

5. Click Create Extruded Text.

The resulting mesh object is placed at the world origin with materials applied automatically. Each time you click Create, a new independent mesh object is generated — you can adjust settings between clicks to create multiple text objects with different configurations.

Material Assignment

Materials are assigned automatically based on the angle of each mesh face's normal relative to the Face Up axis:

Surface	Normal angle to Face Up axis	Default color
Face	Within 30° (nearly parallel)	Red
Edge	Beyond 60° (nearly perpendicular)	Blue
Chamfer	Between 30°–60° (transition)	Gold

All materials use Blender's Principled BSDF shader and are fully editable in the Shader Editor after creation.

Project Structure

text_extruder/
├── blender_manifest.toml   — Extension metadata (replaces bl_info)
├── __init__.py             — Registration entry point
├── properties.py           — All user-configurable properties
├── operators.py            — Core logic: text creation, orientation, materials
├── panels.py               — Sidebar UI with collapsible sub-panels
└── fonts.py                — Cross-platform system font scanner

License

GPL-3.0-or-later (compatible with Blender's license)