Hi lucris, welcome to simply maya. That all sounds very mathy... I think ctbram might have some good answers for you, since he's pretty up on NURBS and continuity and such.
For 3, just go Create > NURBS > Circle... haha. But I think I see what you're saying. Have you tried using the rebuild curve tool? That might give you more control over standardizing your curvature etc. Hope that helps.