extruding is not a good option. what if u need to bevel a non-planar surface. like a side of a car or along side of a desk to round out the corners.
the tool he is looking for is byrons' bevel tool. works much like 3d max bevel,
im not sure where to find it at this point.
but koshigaya has just relesed a bridge tool for maya. i personally cant use maya without his stdio tool set.
so check it out. there might be a bevel in there too.
https://www.Koshigaya.de in the Download Section

unofficial thread https://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre...&page=21&pp=15