Hi Simon,

re:
> Its a shame that so many different softwares are needed to do these things.

The tricky part about that is the more things you make any one software package do tends to increase its complexity and learning curve quite a lot.

- Michael

There are many opportunities to get this results in different software packages.
Another solution can be: Particles with a mesher or splines on a cloner in helix order (you can deform any spline to get an absolut controllable result)
I do not know the Marvelous Designer.

Another way in Moi can be: create an helix as path curve, and a curve to define the shape.
Under transform use Array --> Curve. The result is an extrudet curve to the helix. Now you can deform the points of any curve to get the right shape.

Regards,
Jörg

Well thanks for all these comments.

I will trail a few of the softwares and see how I go......

Everything seems to have got more complicated. My original plan was to learn Rhino over xmas.......

Regards,