Along with what Undseth posted, you might also find it easier to select things using the Outliner. That way you know you're picking exactly what you want, especially when the scene gets busy. You can also organize objects on layers and turn the layers on and off, which I find better than hiding. Lastly, you can go to shading --> shade options --> x-ray to allow you to select interiors a bit easier. Just remember...the outliner is your friend...hehehe.

Anyway, back to your original question. I'm not clear on what exactly you're trying to do. From the screens it looks like you're trying to use curves to to cut a hole in the wall for the archway. If that's the case, you can do this:

1. Build your wall (I just did this with a nurbs cube scaled along the x-axis).

2. In the front view, draw your curved archway. (I used the EP curve tool and closed it manually...you can do the same with the CV tool)

3. Now duplicate the curve and move it in the z-axis to the other side of the wall. shift-select each of the curves and go to surfaces --> loft option box. Reset your settings and loft . Now you should have your lofted surface.

4. With the loftedsurface still selected, shift select one of the two walls it intersects with and go to edit nurbs --> intersect surfaces. That will make a curve on the walls surface.

5. Next go to edit nurbs --> trim tool. Click in the area of the wall you want to keep (ie, anywhere but the archway created from the curve). When you select the tool, you'll see a white grid overlay the wall and after you click it with the tool, you'll see a little marker. Hit enter and you should see a cutout in the wall where you projected the surface.

5. Just repeat step 4 on the other side and there's your cutout.

*Make sure when you intersect and trim that you're selecting the lofted surface and the wall's side. If you select one of the original curves, instead of the lofted surface, the actions won't work.


Another way to do this is using projected surfaces:

1. Build your wall.

2. In the front view, draw your curved archway.

3. Now you want to project the curve onto the wall's surfaces. Select your curve, then shift-select the wall and goto Edit Nurbs --> Project Curves on Surface option box. Make sure the tool is set to "active view" and make sure you're in front view and not perspective or your projected curve will be askew.

4. Now, in perspective view, select the projected curve and shift click the wall again if they're not still selected, and go to edit nurbs --> trim tool. Click in the area of the wall you want to keep (ie, anywhere but the archway created from the curve). When you select the tool, you'll see a white grid overlay the wall and after you click it with the tool, you'll see a little marker. Hit enter and you should see a cutout in the wall where you projected the surface.

5. Now, just duplicate the curve, move it to the other side and repeat the whole process. The end result will be the cutout.


One thing cool about both methods is that since the curves are part of the history, it will allow you to re-position the cutout along the wall a bit without having to re-trim everything. In other words, you can move the opening along the wall.


One last tip: Make sure you reset your tools when you use them because they always stay in the last configuration you used....that can throw you off when you think you're doing something right but have one tiny setting you forgot to change with your tools...heh...especially when surfacing.

Hope this helped some.

--Pete