That first picture is just all black joey, cant see anything other than the curve line.

Im a newbie too and Im not quite sure what you are trying to acheive? I assume by the pics they are polygons? not nurbs? Are you trying to get an 'insert' hole/edge in there?? If you are I would either make some edge loops (you can delete the overburden), splitpoly tool and use extrusions to get what you want. Then you can make a 'crap' later and test the tool you are using. If I have trouble with new tools I do it the 'old' way to get my model going and try the new tool on a simple cube/sphere in a test job.

Booleans work too, though they also can be fickle. Sometimes I throw the curve tools out the window and just use edge loops and split poly to get my result, then just delete the suff I didnt want after. Sometimes its actually quicker this way, leaves you time to model. When you have a cup of tea while modelling I go to testing my tools on simple shapes in another 'test' job. Hope I helped and didnt confuse.

cheers bullet