Terrain modelling mounds with rounded tops?

[tricky]

I have a bunch of closed lines that I am to be using as a terrain object in Max. They form a bunch of grassy mounds. The problem I have had in the past with the terrain object is that they always have flat tops (dictated by the topmost line). How do I achieve nice smoothly rounded tops on the terrain model?

[joconnell]

Volume select fed into a relax or even an edit poly and do three levels of bevels to round them off? You could even make three gradually smaller versions of the top line by duplicating it and then using the inset option in editable spline to gradually pull it in.

[flino2004]

you can use Rhino, they are a bunch of apps that convert curves in a single surface(nurbs)...rhino trial and those apps have trials too for about 30 days
what i do in Rhino is (maybe there is something in similar MAX) ...creating your model as usually you do, after that I extract point clouds from that model and creating a surface from those point will do the trick.
you will get a smooth version of the terrain...the grid of the point cloud depends of the detail that you want to get.

Fernando

[beestee]

Once I have the terrain, I have used a subdivide modifier (quadify would probably work as well) to get a nice, even mesh. Then I use an Edit Poly modifier and under the 'paint deformation' tools i use the 'relax' brush to smooth out any rough edges at plateaus or peaks. Make sure you adjust the brush to fit the increments of your terrain, and sometimes it helps to run over the same area a few times if the edge is especially harsh.