i think I should just add this bit of text to help paint a better picture of an application I am thinking of using such a parametric relationship:
"I have a complex doubly curved nurbs surface which I have applied stairs via some gh work over its entire course. I thought it might be interesting to use curvature to somehow drive the placement of railings, or other features that might suggest different pathways up the landscape based on their different degrees of curvature. Imagine that steep zones would be encircled by a railing while maybe smaller slopes would trigger a culling of the stairs so that a ramped surface is exposed. Is something like this possible? Is this far-fetched? Any ideas?"
