by Tiemen's addons·Modeling
Images © Tiemen's addons. Used for product review; image policy.
Profile Rails Extruder earns its place in the superhive library for a narrow, useful job: extruding a profile along a rail while keeping its shape constant, where Blender's standard curve bevel would taper it. A newer version based on geometry nodes adds selectable profiles and an Add Shapes button for example shapes.
Profile Rails Extruder is a Blender addon for extruding a flat face profile into 3D space along a rail. The rail can go in any direction, and the extruded shape stays the same regardless of that direction. This sets it apart from Blender's usual way of extruding along a curve with a bevel, which produces a tapered result.
The workflow starts by selecting edges in edit mode and pressing Make Rail, with a green circle marking the rail's start that can be changed or swapped. Selecting a face and pressing select places a copy at the beginning of the rail, and Extrude builds the shape. New objects land in an Extrusions collection, while the colored rail helpers sit in a Rail objects collection in the Outliner.
A newer version based on geometry nodes is also available. It needs the rail to be a mesh object forming a continuous, non-cyclic chain of edges, and Make Object Rail extrudes it using a circle as the default profile. A modifier menu lets you choose other shapes, the Add Shapes button imports example profiles, and controls cover projection plane size, shift planes, reverse curve and point count.
Profile Rails Extruder is best for extruding a fixed-shape profile along a freeform rail in Blender, where the standard curve bevel would taper the result.
Profile Rails Extruder is completely free to download and use.
Profile Rails Extruder was tested and confirmed working with Blender version 4.4, noted in a July 2025 update. To install it, download the addon, open Blender's preferences menu and choose install, then locate the downloaded file and pick it. Once installed, the tool appears in the side panel under the Edit menu, where you can make rails and run extrusions. A demo video is available as well if you want to look at it before setting things up.
Profile Rails Extruder keeps the extruded profile's shape unchanged regardless of the rail's direction, and the rail can run in any direction. With Blender's usual method of extruding along a curve using a bevel, the extrusion comes out tapered. A side-by-side comparison shows the Profile Rails Extruder result on the left keeping its shape, while the standard curve bevel on the right tapers. That constant-shape behaviour is the main difference between the two approaches.
Profile Rails Extruder builds a rail from selected edges: in edit mode, choose the edges and press Make Rail. A green circle marks the start of the rail, and the starting point can be changed in the popup menu or swapped between start and end. Next, select a face to extrude and press select, which places a copy at the beginning of the rail, then press Extrude. New extrusion objects go into an Extrusions collection, and the colored rail helpers are stored in a Rail objects collection in the Outliner.
Profile Rails Extruder's geometry nodes version, installed from railfollower_geo.zip, requires the rail to be a mesh object that forms a continuous chain of edges and is not cyclic, meaning not a closed loop. After installing, you'll find the Rail Extruder in the Edit section of the N-panel. Clicking Make Object Rail extrudes the rail using a circle as the default profile, and a modifier panel menu lets you pick a different shape. The Add Shapes button imports several example profiles you can use for the extrusion.
Profile Rails Extruder is listed as free here. For current licensing terms, check the developer's page, since terms can change over time. The addon includes documentation, and both an original version and a newer geometry nodes based version are available. The original installs through Blender's preferences and appears in the side panel Edit menu, while the geometry nodes version installs from railfollower_geo.zip and shows up in the Edit section of the N-panel.
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