Hi rodney,


> 1. is it possible to hide selected points on a spline?
> I have a lot of points on a helix that confuse me when
> editing from the top view looking down the barrel.

No, currently control points can't be individually hidden, only objects and sub-objects (edges, faces) can be hidden.


> 2. is it possible to transform/manipulate/scale splines that
> make up a surface? i.e. I create a revolve of a spline, the
> resulting object has feature curves that define the surface.
> I can select those curves but can't move or scale them.

What you are describing is a lot more how a polygon modeler works - MoI is a NURBS modeler and NURBS solids work a lot differently than a polygon modeler.

One of the big differences is that edges may not be the "natural edge" of the underlying surface but rather trim curves that are living on the surface.

See This FAQ answer for some description and illustration on what an "underlying surface" means.

So in general you don't yank NURBS solids around by their edges to manipulate them, instead you generally construct objects from profile curves rather than trying to start with some different shaped object and smush it around.

But this different approach (with "underlying surfaces", etc...) is also why NURBS solids work a lot better for boolean operations than polygon models.

You're generally better off using NURBS for models that are somewhat more "machined" in nature, where the 2D profile curves that you draw more fully define the shape of the model, although possibly in many different sub sections that you then combine with booleans.


> 3. is there any way to bend a surface after it has been constructed flat?

You can turn on control points for an individual surface and manipulate them. I do plan on adding some more kinds of deformation tools in the future, but they are not quite a natural fit with NURBS solids, see the FAQ answer above for some description.


> 4. is it possible to pick the object or point the camera revolves around? like
> a focus point. this would help a lot when zoomed in on a part of an object.

You can use the "Reset" button that is on the semi-transparent toolbar at the bottom of a viewport to center the view and the pivot point on the selected objects. Click it once to center on selected objects, click it a second time to switch to the whole model regardless of selection.

You can also use the Zoom Area button on the same toolbar to pick a specific point to focus in on, that point that you pick for the center of the zoom window will become the rotation pivot of the viewport.

- Michael