Mirror changes to side of cube across all six sides

Question

I want to create a cube with some general extrusions. This should be the same across all sides of the cube. Is there a way to make this mirrored across all six sides? I know that I could delete the rest of the cube, copy my changes, rotate it 90°, move it down and to the side, and repeat for all the sides, then remove doubles, but I'm wondering if there's a way to make this work in real time.

In the below image, all six sides should copy the changes shown here on the one side:

Answer 1

Modifiers:

You could do this with a Mirror modifier and an Array Modifier:

1. Delete the excess geometry:

   

2. Add a Mirror modifier:

   

3. Add an Array Modifier.

4. Add an Empty rotated -90°, 0°, 90° (assuming the mirror is mirroring along the X axis):

   

5. Set the empty as the Object offset in the array modifier:

   

Result:

Duplifaces:

Another way is with Duplifaces:

1. Add a cube and a plane.

2. Parent the plane to the cube (CtrlP):

   

3. With the cube selected, enable Duplifaces in the Properties Editor > Object > Duplication:

   

4. Edit the plane object:

   

The duplifaces will be displayed in object mode:

Limitations:

• The array modifier method will not rotate the duplicated faces in the same direction: (this is tweak-able by adjusting the rotation of the empty)

  

• Duplifaces do not display in edit mode.

Answer 2

• You could select all faces in edit mode A
• Inset I with individual option I

• Invert selection CtrlI
• Extrude with E with individual origins

This way you only need to repeat the rotation for all faces.