I've got a modelling question that will ultimately be scripted, so I can't do any eyeballing or control vertex tweaking.

I want a face to be extruded along a curve that I can control. I can do this in a number of ways which all present problems.

1) Use the generate curve option in the extrude face dialogue. I cannot figure out how to make the generated curve longer, or as long as the extruded region will be. It just creates a tiny little straight curve instead the extruded geometry.

2) I can build a new curve starting at the origin, but I don't know how to make the curve move and snap right to the face so that the curve extends out from the mesh at the face(s) normal. If I leave the curve at the origin, the extrusion will also follow it, thus deforming in a weird way.

3) I can generate an extrusion along a curve, and then try to attach it to the existing mesh, but that seems really messy and error prone. And difficult.

I can draw some pics if that helps.