The present study is concerned with the analysis of three-dimensional sheet metal forming process by the upper-bound method. For the analysis a systematic approach is necessary for the expression of geometric configuration of the deforming workpiece. In the present paper geometric configuration is constructed by three unit surfaces which are defined by sweeping the vertical section curves and boundary curve. The principal components of strain increment during the process is calculated directly from the change of geometric configuration for an arbitrary triangular element. The corresponding solution is found through optimization of the total energy consumption with respect to some parameters assumed in the velocity field and geometric profile. In order to verify the effectiveness of the present method, hydrostatic bulging of a rectangular disphragm is analyzed and the computation by the present method for the geometric shape renders the good result. From the comparison of the present results with the existing experimental results and elastic-plastic finite element solutions, good agreements have been obtained for the pressure curves, polar membrane strains and pressure distributions. The present method can thus be further applied to the analysis of other three-dimensional sheet metal forming processes.