a question about Shell

[qyblues]

I am trying to make an object looks like a Pringle Can. First I drew a cylindar then cut the top plane off and use shell. I have applied an outer amount. It looks like the bottom doesn't have any thickness in this way. I tried to go back and add a bevel on the bottom plane, but the extra side surface won't have the same smoothness as the rest of the body. What should I do?? 

[Steve_Curley]

Create your Cylinder, convert to Editable Poly and remove the poly on the top and exit sub-object mode. Apply the Shell and use the Inner Amount. The bottom definitely has thickness - zoom in in the front or side (wireframe) viewport to see it more clearly.

The problem is that Cap produces a single, multi-sided poly which will never Chamfer properly.
When you create your Cylinder, increase the Cap Segments to 2. Convert to Editable Poly, carefully delete the inner ring of triangles on the top, select the resulting Border and Uniform Scale it to give the required thickness. With it still Selected Shift+Move it downwards stopping just short of the bottom, then Cap it. Unless you're going to show the inside at the bottom very clearly you won't need to Chamfer that, just the outside.

[qyblues]

Is there a difference in outter amount and inner amount or they are just two different ways of doing almost the same thing?
Thanks!

[Steve_Curley]

Pretty much. Inner makes the inside of the object smaller, outer makes the outside bigger. That's so you can use whichever is appropriate depending on whether you made the initial object the correct size inside or outside. However, I used inside when I tried it because a Cylinder (which has no inside) is clearly the outside of the object. You do need to bear in mind that for an object to be valid it has to be one continuous surface - if you get the polys flipped it can and probably will cause problems later on. Also, if you use outside, you'll notice that the object is no longer a perfect cylinder (the sides angle in at the bottom) - using Inside "hides" that inside where it likely won't be seen.

Identical objects, Outer on the Left, Inner on the Right. You can clearly see that the Shell is affecting the bottom of the object.