Making a bowl: Step 3 - Make the NURBS

Once the cross section is done, it can be made 3 dimensional by using a NURBS object, that will rotate it around the Y axis to trace out a surface. (NURBS = Non Uniform Rational B-Spline. Don't worry about it. It's really just a way of making a spline into a 3D object, while retaining the ability to change the 3D object by modifying the spline.)

To make a lathe NURBS, select the Lathe NURBS menu item from the NURBS submenu of the Object Menu:

This will create an "empty" lathe NURBS object. (Just say OK to the dialog). To apply our spline to it, drag the spline (in the Object Manager) on top of the NURBS object until the cusor changes to a "drop" cursor and let go. The Spline will then become a child of the NURBS, and will appear indented in the Object Manager. The NURBS will get a triangular knob that you can click to reveal the Spline child:

Notice also that the main window has updated to show the action of the NURBS on the spline:

Cool.

Now we have a bowl, believe it or not. To see it, click on the "render in editor window" palette button:

You should then see something that looks very much like a bowl, made of a nondescript white plastic material:

If you're happy with white plastic, you're done. Otherwise, we can now add a material to the bowl to turn it into wood. --> proceed to step 4.