cannot get soft modification tool to work
 

I've created a 1 x 1 nurbs plane with 20 x 20 UV patches. Then I select a point with the soft modification tool and move it vertically. It deforms the plane, but only with a very small radius. Adjusting the falloff radius does nothing. It seems like the tool will not affect anything outside of a 5x5 square surrounding wichever point I modify. Please help me. I'm new to Maya and it seems like the most unintuitive program I've ever used. Thanks.

first of all, maya is one of the most brilliant programs ever written ;)

Im not sure why your having hassels with this tool, its only a new add on in the last few versions anyhow.
Why not use a deformer, to get your results.
Or.. better still, change to the animation set.
select the vertices you want, add a cluster, and then use paint cluster wieghts tool. This does the same job, but gives you even more control.
Just some thoughts :)