Hi Michael,

Definitely a lightbulb moment, there! My takeaway is commit to the booleans, rather than patch modeling. Now I realize that should've been more obvious, as "network" is just one tool, while there are half a dozen devoted to smooth lofting, trimming, etc. It's really more intuitive, anyway. I'm getting the hang of trimming, retrimming, etc. and it's quite different than anything I've done in solid and polygon modeling previously. MoI is the first NURBS tool I've tried that doesn't get in the way of itself so I can actually focus on the model enough for things to begin to make sense.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply--every sentence is full of insights. I think I'll reapproach the same model from scratch after absorbing some more videos, etc. (though of course your repaired model is working).

Hi Chase, you're welcome!

There are some tips here for people coming from a poly modeling background which may help some too:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4865.2

But yes the main area where NURBS modeling really shines is when you're mostly using 2D profile curves where some profiles generate extended base shapes and others as cutting objects for booleans. This strategy fits particularly well with mechanical parts.

With a guitar neck you're getting a little bit out of the zone because of some swoopy and blending shaping will need to draw from the 3D surfacing toolset for some areas but you want to limit that when it is possible. You'll be hitting a somewhat steeper learning curve.

Also another recent discussion about switching a particular model from a "patch by patch" fill in method to a "build extended shape then boolean" method:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=10210.16

When your model is more melty/blendy shaped all over that's when it becomes difficult to drive the design using 2D profile curves and then that's better to do in a poly modeling program with sub-d modeling instead of with NURBS.

I know it can be difficult at first because it's such a different strategy than what you're used to with poly modeling. But the payoff is that for the right type of model it's super fast. You form more of your model by 2D drawing instead of managing a ton of vertices in 3D space.

- Michael