ok well i was taking a tut in MAX and i drew out the chess peice (cause it was a chess boad) as splines and then went to do a lathe and the top is hollow…i did everthing thing they told me to do but it still is the same…can some one look at this and tell me what i should do? if needed i can provide a .max file…
Make sure that the topmost vertex/CV is at x=0 and y=0. That will close the top. Another thing to try is to close the surface (dunno how to do that in MAX, I haven’t touched it in more than a year now). Lastly, you could convert the spline surface into a poly surface and simply merge all of the vertices at the very top.
One thing I noticed is that the “ball” atop your piece is backwards. What I mean is that the normals are pointing inward, not outward. Did you make the ball part separately from the base? You should fix that part too. Actually, is this what you meant by hollow? I thought you meant the tiny hole on the top.
To flip the normals, if your mesh is a poly mesh, just select the faces, and I’m sure there’s a flip normal command in there somewhere. 3d-iva will prolly be able to help you where I have failed. Sorry. :-\
yep, the big gapping hole is what i ment by hollow. i did flip the normals but that just did the same thing to the base…3D or Dan or Edwin (but i know where you are) where art thou?
anyone? plz 
I’ll try once again. First of all, how did you make it? Was it a NURBS curve that you drew, then lathed? Or did you just lathe the bottom half and use a sphere as the top half?
If it’s all from a NURBS curve, then I have no clue what’s going on.
If you used a sphere and a NURBS curve, then THERE’S your problem. Go back in the history and reverse the normals of the sphere ONLY.
If nothing helps, then start again. Make a NURBS profile curve, then lathe it. I can see no possible way to get the geometry you got (with the backwards normals up top) if you do it this way. I can’t even figure out how to do it if I WANT that effect…
-Al
for the top i just used an arch spline. i think i will try to make a reflection of it then lathe it…
Go to your modifier list, and add “Cap holes” from the drop down list.
If that doesn’t fix it, I have NO idea wht you did wrong… :-\
Hey sorry man I did not see the mention of me in this thread. Hey the things suggested should work…If they dont send me the .3ds and I will check it out…Off top I dont have any idea how to fix it.
well i will try Eilsoe’s way, starts up MAX if not i will but it on a server or in a zip pack and post it.
ok well i used cap holes and it looks a little outta place. but i guess it worked. its attached…
edit: crap that is blurry, i will re-render and re-attach in a second.
edit edit: ok thats as good as it gets it looks like…i will try one more time
edit edit edit: well thats it, its as good as i can get it…if i have time i will screen cap it if needed.
The problem is still there, unfortunately. You say you used an arch spline for the top, so I guess you used a different spline for the bottom. That is the source of the problem. The spline directions are opposite so you get one right side out mesh and one inside out mesh stuck together. You could go to the original splines and flip the spline direction of one of the splies, or you can just make the piece with one spline. Here’s an example (done real quick in Maya, but it’s basically the same) of using one spline.
well i may just have to re-start it or just forget it. thanks for all your help!
hmm i didnt read all the posts but looking at the images maybe u can fix it by right clicking on ur view port (on the text where it says perspective) then clicking on CONFIGURE. Tick the box that says ‘force 2 sided’ under the rendering options… when u render make sure u tick the same thing under the rendering option…
i dunno if that will work but u can give it a try…
Kei! Thats it! Well that worked untill i rendered, so then i went to my material and clicked 2 sided and poof! it worked! 
thanks SO much!