shell modifier

[hqu2]

why the shell modifier is not working on a plane that converted to editable poly?

[10DSpace]

@hqu2 

It should work and does here.  Did you by any chance accidentally hit the eye icon next to the Shell modifier and disable it?  Or are you currently selecting the Edtable poly level of the stack with the "Show End Result toggle Off"?

[jibijib]

Shell also doesn't work on subobjects - it 'shells' the whole mesh. I know why it shouldn't work on single polys attached to other polys, but I think it -should- work on elements.

[hqu2]

this is my first time to use Shell modifier to add thickness to a plane modeled object. Is there anything that I need to aware. I have used shell modifier to other object such as line tool created object, and it adds thickness to it but why not a plane created object. thank you of your time.

[10DSpace]

@hqu2 

Like I say it works perfectly here (see image below).   The potential issues I see in your scene are 1. possible duplicate vertices in your mesh, and 2) possibly you scaled the object at the object level and did not Reset Xform; this would potentially cause a mismatch between the inner amount (~2.8 feet)  and the outer amount (~0.1 feet)settings you are using in the shell modifier and the size of the object if it is very much larger.  

But before troubleshooting your current scene, verify for yourself using your version of Max that the shell modifier does work properly on a plane converted to an editable poly.  Open a fresh scene in Max and create a plane,  convert it to an editable poly and then apply the shell modifier and and adjust the settings.  It should work fine.  Now disable the shell modifier and go to the editable poly level of the stack and delete 1 side of the object.  Apply the symmetry modifier and then re-enable the shell modifier.   This should also work fine.

To troubleshoot the problem scene:

1. In your image, your surface has a dark area in the lower right section of the object that is not smoothed properly .  This could be due to various things, one of which could be duplicate subobjects and/or unwelded vertices.  To check this, go back to the editable poly level in the stack and turn off "Show end result" so you can see what you are doing.  Select all of the vertices and note the number Max reports as selected.  By my count of the visible edges on 1 side (16 edges), you should have no more than 32 vertices total.  If you have more than that you should weld them with a low threshold value like 0.1, but the threshold value depends on the size of your the model and it is unclear to me what size the object is (see point 2.).   

2.  Check the scale of the editable poly object by selecting it (at the object level, not in subobject mode) ,  choosing "World" as the Reference Coordinate System and then right clicking on the Select and Uniform Scale icon.  It should be 100% in all axis.  If it is not 100% in all axis (a "negative" 100% is also bad)  then you need to Reset XForm, but follow these specific steps to do so:

a) Make a copy of the editable poly plane and on this copy, delete the Symmetry and Shell modifiers. 

b)With the editable poly plane selected at the object level, go to Utilities Panel > Reset XForm>Reset Selected. 

c) Then from this same Utility Panel, select Collapse>Collapse selected.  Now go back and check the scale again and verify that it now shows 100% in all axes.

You should be able to apply symmetry and shell to the cleaned model now.  If not, something else is wrong and given how simple the model is, you are probably better off starting fresh with a new editable poly and modeling it with the original as a guide to match the shape.   Hope this helps.