You can alter the visible shape of a surface by trimming away parts.

Since NURBS surfaces are intrinsically four-sided and do not allow holes, you need a way to visually simulate irregular shapes and holes when using NURBS. The answer is trimming.

Trimming lets you visually cut or divide a surface along a curve-on-surface so it appears to have holes or missing pieces. The trimmed surface, however, is not actually cut. It exists in a hidden form that does not render or affect modeling. You can recover the trimmed part of a surface using the Untrim tool.

Creating curves-on-surface and then trimming is the most common way to combine NURBS surfaces in industrial design.