Making tire treads with radial symmetry

[Blastamon]

I am trying to make an off-road tire. I have been trying to use an alpha which I radial symmetry around a tire model. Its easier for me to explain thru pictures so here goes…

I made these treads in max, they tile perfectly.

I used the model to make an alpha brush.

But when I turn on radial symmetry, and drag out the alpha, It tiles/mirrors weirdly. I want it to look like the circled green treads, not whats on the tire. Any help would be appreciated.

[aurick]

What I would do is temporarily use cylindrical UV mapping on the tire. Then create an alpha that has all the treads, designed to fit perfectly around the cylinder. Load that into the Alpha palette, and use Tool>Masking to convert it to a mask on your model. You can now use the Inflate or Size deformation through the mask to get a very precise tread. After that, you can change the mapping back to whatever you want.