Hi Anthony,

> now the only thing i'm curious about is if i can somehow
> re-create the ellipse, in moi, without using the ellipse or
> conic section tool. mainly out of morbid curiosity.

Which tools would you want to use instead?

For a NURBS curve to represent an exact conic section curve involves having not just control point positions of the curve set but also particular weight values for each control point set as well, which the ellipse and conic commands will do.

You can't get a conic section (other than a parabola) by just placing curve x,y,z control points without having weights also set.

If you only want an approximated ellipse rather than an 100% mathematically precise one then that's another matter.

See here for more information on the properties of NURBS curves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-uniform_rational_B-spline
http://www.mactech.com/articles/develop/issue_25/schneider.html

See the parts that describe what a "rational" curve for more information on weights and what NURBS configurations can yield different conic section curves.

- Michael