How can I make an indented cube without using a boolean operation? As the title says, how can I make this shape without resorting to a Boolean operation?



This is obviously a very simple example, but I find myself needing to do something like this relatively often when modelling.

Despite using Blender for a couple of years, and considering myself an intermediate to possibly advanced user, I still know of no easy way to make this kind of indentation in an object.

Obviously, if you are looking to make an indentation in the middle of the surface, you can simply select a face and extrude down. As you will know, this does not work at the edge of the surface.

I can create this shape using loop cuts, deleting the faces and then using snap to edge to extrude the edges down to the same level (and then filling in the faces), but it feels cumbersome and a lot of work for what feels like it should be very simple.
The F2 addon is quite useful for operations like this.

Make sure it is enabled in user preferences, then...


Delete the faces where you want the indentation.
Select an outer corner vertex and press F to create a face.
Repeat 2 for the other corner vertex.
Select the upper (or lower) edge.
Press F twice to fill in the remaining faces.