Unity 3d - ProBuilder Series - The "New Shape" tool as the base to start new 3D shapes in Unity

In this part of the Unity ProBuilder tutorial series, I'll show options for the "New Shape" tool in the ProBuilder interface. This is a great option to create 3D Models and rapid game environment building inside the Unity editor! Also check out How to Make a Bounce Game Series https://bit.ly/39HIY

This episode of the ProBuilder series goes deeper on the New Shape tool — the dialog-driven way to spawn 3D primitives — and ends with a practical build: a hollow tower interior fitted with a spiral staircase, all without leaving Unity.

Step 1 — Two ways to make a shape, one rule of thumb

You can right-click in the hierarchy and pick from the ProBuilder submenu, or click the New Shape tool. Same shapes either way, but the New Shape tool opens a dialog with the full option set. The rule: quick and default, use the right-click menu; anything specific, use New Shape. The drag workflow is consistent across shapes — click and drag defines the X and Z footprint, release and drag up extrudes the height.

Step 2 — The arch, and when end caps matter

With an arch you can set the thickness, the side count (more sides, smoother curve), and the circumference — 180 degrees for a classic arch, or a full 360 ring. The end-caps option is the interesting one: it controls whether the two bottom faces exist. To see why you'd care, switch to face selection, hold Shift, and extrude the arch backward into a doorway. If that doorway sits flush on the ground, the bottom faces are never seen — leaving end caps off saves geometry you don't need.

Step 3 — The cone and the four-sided spike trick

The cone lets you set the face count and where the pivot sits — the center of the object or its first corner. A favorite trick: set a cone to just four sides and you've got an instant low-poly spike, perfect as a ground hazard that rises up out of the floor as an obstacle.

Step 4 — A quick tour of the rest

The dialog also offers the cube, cylinder, door frame, pipe, prism, sphere, sprite, and staircase. The prism makes a great gable for a house roof; the pipe extrudes into simple industrial props. The staircase is the sleeper hit: alongside height settings it has a circumference value, and cranking it bends the straight run into a curved, spiraling staircase — exactly what you'd want climbing the inside of a tower.

Step 5 — Build the tower

Putting it together: create a cylinder, drag out its footprint, extrude it tall, and increase the side count so the curve reads smooth. Then flip the normals — the skin that faced outward now faces inward, so the camera sees the inside of the shape instead of the outside. Drop the curved staircase inside and you have a playable tower interior, ready for materials and detail. That's the New Shape tool's real value: a handful of parametric primitives that combine into actual game environments in minutes.