Modify > Extrude > Extrude Nodes to Members prompts you with the following dialog.
It generates a series of members by extruding selected nodes along a global direction.
You may specify a distance list and an extrusion direction for the generation of beams. The distance list is a comma separated list that specifies multiple distances. For example, a distance list of “12,2@14,3@10” will generate distances of 12, 14, 14, 10, 10 and 10 in length units. You have the option to automatically merge nodes and elements after extrusion. You should check this option unless duplicate nodes are explicitly permitted.
The following screen capture illustrates the members that are generated by extruding one node (the first node) using the input from the dialog above.
