Help with the Shell Tool

Help with the Shell Tool

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to Cheetah3D and am still learning what all the tools are used for.

In the help for the shell tool it says "The shell tool is the tool of choice if you want to make walls for a house or if you want to create a solid object out of a plain surface. The images below demonstrate how a simple polygon structure was turned into a realistic wall structure quickly and easily using the Shell Tool."

I've been playing around with the shell tool and I don't see how it (easily) made the shapes that are on the help page.
I don't suppose anyone might give me some pointers on how those shapes were created..
 
Shell is very much like Extrude, with one difference: instead of adding volume to the shape in just one direction (ie, along the x, y or z axis, according to the orientation of the shape you're extruding), it allows you to add volume outwards (or inwards, if that's what floats your boat).

For instance, should I create a plain cube, and select the top polygon, and I can Extrude it only up or down, to either increase or (sort of) decrease the height of the cube by adding sections.

With Shell, on the other hand, I can select multiple polygons with different orientations (such as in the help page, where a single shape had polygons selected facing a number of different ways) and then drag the mouse as normal to add volume for all of them at once - with the example of the house, it thickens the walls so that they aren't just one polygon.
 
Oops.. I wrongly assumed that the shell tool was used to create the walls themselves (allowing you to create windows/doors). I now see what you mean about giving the walls (all at once) some thickness.

Thanks for the confirmation Randy.. I now see what you mean now.
 
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