Easier solution.
In Rhino IGES export. Set generic version to Maya or Softimage. Either works just fine.
As a practical matter, both Maya and Houd. seem to suppourt up to degree 9 NURBS. But try to keep you noyibs(
) 5 or below.
My personal reccomendation and my standard procedure, unless overridden by clients, is to tesselate into polys. Export the meshes as OBJ, one object per OBJ file. Working with polys at animation and rendering level is simpler and gives more control over UV coords. So model with NURBS but animate with polys.
Having said all that, IMHO, NURBS are unnessessary in this day and age of AWSOME AWSOME AWSOME sub-div suppourt by Houdini, Maya, and XSI. So if you have a choice, use sub-divs. Use polys for props and rigid surfaces. Characters are sub-div, fa'sure.
However (there is always a however
), don't neglect your NURBS skills. Large shops still require working with NURBS of it artists. I think they are all wrong and behind the times, but who am I wo make waves.
Dave Rindner