face extruding question

[Cmagus]

Hello Im very new to 3d studio max and im trying to work on the character tutorial on the front page here and im on the first step and already i need help now i know this might seem like a dumb question but here goes nothing.I followed the steps made the cube and applied an edit mesh mod and collapsed stack.Next it say to extrude face so I click the triangle in the stack that say face.When i extrude it ,it only extrudes half the cube which is a triangular shape.is there a way I can fix this.Now another thing about that sometimes it works and I extrude all the square and then I must move the vertices to shape thats fin.When i move the vertices the lines start going funny and I select both vertices and move it down but I always seem to be getting theses extra/out of place lines so is there a way i can fix this.Ive been working with maya for some time now and I will tell you its alot easier than max but max is better to do that tutorial in anyways if some one could help I would appreciate it alot thank you

[FutureMan]

Ok well first when they say extrude the face they really mean the polygon or face of the cube, so you'll want the square:*poly: button depressed instead so it'll pick the whole polygon and you'll extrude that.

Now as far as vertices go you'll want to make sure that you have the "ignore backfacing" option turned off but you'll need to check all three(Top, front, side) viewports to make sure you've selected only what you wanted to select. Sometimes it will be better to have it on, but I find it can be a pain when you are moving alot of verts.
Let me just emphasize what I said before about checking your viewports.

Oh yeah, save often into different files and set the autobackup feature to something with more saves, I use around 10, in the preferences just in case.

Another good thing to learn is that if you hold in ctrl+select you will select in addition to what you've already had selected, and alt+select will remove what you've just selected. Shift+select will select everything else but what you've just selected.
That didn't really come out quite as clear as I'd like but I can't think of a better way to say it.

[Edit:Almost beat me lilly :D]

[lillypusher]

if you're doing the Joan of Arc tutorial, then it was translated from french. and when it says "face" as far as i remember, it means POLYGON - that's the square red icon, no. 4.

each polygon is made up of two faces - triangles. which is why it keeps coming up funny.

tip - don't use editable mesh - use editable polygon. much easier to work with, and it has many usefull features, like connecting edges (instead of cutting through the polygons) and selecting rings of edges.

tip no. 2 - before doing that tutorial, do lots of little ones. just to get the feel of editable mesh/poly. things will get easier after that.


***edit***

where'd he come from? and a whole minute before me???

:D

***double edit***

you even beat me editing my post! :D

[Cmagus]

Thanks alot guys i was getting kind of frustrated there for a bit thanks