You need to assign the variable over to smarty, here is how you do it...
Code:
$smarty->assign("variable_for_smarty",$variable_in_php_your_transfering);
variable_for_smarty = What you want to name the variable for use in your *.tpl file, there is no $ in that line but to access it in the php it will be $variable_for_smarty
$variable_in_php_your_transfering = The variable in that php file that you want to use..
Hopefully that explains it and i have it correctly..
Here's an example as well...
Code:
$smarty->assign("memlevel",$user_account[membership]);
That will allow you to get the currect user that is logged in membership level, you would just need to specify { $memlevel } in your *.tpl...