A planar surface can have objects intersect it and then have an area trimmed with relative ease I believe.

Try this:

1. Create a planar surface
2. Create a nurbs cylinder and make sure the cylinder goes through the plane
3. Select the planar surface and then shift select the cylinder
4. Select edit nurbs/intersect surfaces and bring out the options dialogue box
5. click on the option "create curves for 1st surface"
6. Ensure "curve on surface" is also selected
7. click on intersect

8. Now if you try using the trim tool on the planar surface, you should be able select it and select which bit of the planar surface you want to keep.

9. delete the cylinder and you should be left with a planar surface with a hole in it.

The hole may look somewhat jagged but should render ok. Rebuilding the planar surface with more u and v spans may make the hole look better as well.


From my limited experience, step 6 is the important one when it comes to the trimming. If there is no curve on the surface you won't be able to trim it.

Selecting create curves for both surfaces would allow you to be able to trim both the planar surface and the cylinder where they intersect.

If you really wanted as well, you could make a planar surface with say 8 u and 8 v patches; then you could select some of the points on the planar surface and move them to make bumps in the surface.

Hope this helps