The hot extrusion of profiles is known to be one of most economic processes in industrial application. For producing Various structural frames of complex cross-sectional geometry, more complicated profiles are manufactured requiring better quality, demanding a systematic approach to quality assurance. In recent years, owing to the development of numerical methods of analysis, more detailed information can be obtained from computation. In the present work, rigid-viscoplastic finite element programs have been developed as simulation tools for analyzing the extrusion of profiles. From the simulation, the effects of various design parameters such as flow guide, die lands and porthole dies are investigated (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.