A 'stepped ramp' is a new term for me. don't know anything about it. Will consult the Maya docs on that one, unless there's an explanation provided somewhere here.
I'll try snapping CV's first and...

I have modelled the hull of a spacecraft and want to be able to have the bottom half with one texture (eg black) and the top another (eg white).

Is there a way to select half the faces along a...

Scratch that. I worked it out. Once I lofted the curves I simply selected 'Convert to Polygon'. The settings in that took a bit of deciphering but I just experimented with different settings til I...

I'm stuck on doing what seems to be a simple process but can't for the life of me work out how:

I am building the fuselage of an aircraft in halves by drawing 4 curves at key points along the hull...

Thanks for that! The obj. format should do the trick. I've got other 3D software that recognises obj files and can export to 3DS that way.
Its a little long winded but still the same result.

Does anyone know what export plugins there are. I mainly want to be able to export to 3DS format, and ideally a free one if there is one.
Otherwise any info on this would be helpful. Thanks..