Hey all. First post on the forums, hope you guys can help me with this one.

First off, I'm using 3DS Max 6.0. I know my copy is old, but for the most part it's getting the job done. The most difficult part is a lack of documentation on the tools I'm using. For the most part, I feel my issue is a technique problem more than a version problem. So, hopefully someone can help me out with it.

I'm using Surface Tools (Splines/Surface Modifiers) for some Automobile modeling I'm working on. Mostly for the Level-of-Detail requirements set by my employer, but also because it's going fairly quickly. The biggest issue I have comes from a mystery problem. Basically, I'll have a series of splines I've formed into a patch. The splines all seem to reflect the shape I'm trying to create, but the patch basically bulges around them, and creates....either a muscly or bulgy shape, almost like a Saddle.

Here are some reference views taken from the front bumper of the car; Top, Front, Right, and a few perspective shots:

[IMG][Link to i55.photobucket.com][/IMG]
[IMG][Link to i55.photobucket.com][/IMG]
[IMG][Link to i55.photobucket.com][/IMG]
[IMG][Link to i55.photobucket.com][/IMG]
[IMG][Link to i55.photobucket.com][/IMG]

As you can see, the handles are looking pretty common, and are describing the curves very well (in my own opinion, anyways...), yet the patch seems to climb way out of the range of the splines that are forming it. The example I'm showing isn't a Quad patch, but the same effect seems to happen in those as well. Also for reference, with the exception of the Tri's Vertex, all the Vertices being used are Bezier and are welded accordingly. The only real fix I've found is to create patches using different vertices, but sometimes I can't get the right polyflow that way.

Any information I could get on this, either advice or links, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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