@eigenfactory: Here is a the a la cart that describes a few different routes to take. None of them are perfect and there are always trade offs.
Mainly just do to lack of SW themselves non-marketing of it, is that there is a mesh to NURBS conversion built into the program called “Scan to 3D”. Now let me state simply that this is not a magic be all answer to converting mesh to NURBS but at the very least you have an option and it works as such…
Direct Route 1…mostly automated with some levels of interactivity. The ending NURBS patch is a quilt and not what you’d want in the end, but it gives you some where to start. While in SW go to “Tools, Add-ins” and chose “Scan to 3D”. As you have the student version it should be there, if you are working in a company then they have to SW Professional. Once it’s turned on, then go to “file, open” and there will now be the ability to import meshes. There are some sliders and options to adjust how well the NURBS patch traces over the mesh but just wanted to put it out there that it is possible. This plug in is in now way at the level of something like a Geomagics or Rapidform but then again those programs cast upwards of 8K and above.
Direct Route 2…Power Surfacing is a new plug in for SW that allow for SubD modeling directly in SW. It’s a decent route at this point but needs a few more revisions of the software before I’d give it 100% seal of approval. It allows for a wide range of possibilities inside of SW that nothing else is able to match.
Indirect Route 1…requires that you have multiple programs for this it work properly. About 50% of this method is automated and will have a bit better ending result overall compared to the direct route. Take the .obj and bring it into Zbrush and use the Dynamesh to retopologize the mesh into quads. Then bring into Rhino and convert it to NURBS then bring into SW. This is going to be a heavy data set so you’re going to need some decent horsepower to start pushing this geometry around.
Indirect Route 2…Most manual and time consuming but will give the best results. Using Modo’s “Topology Pen” capabilities to trace over the mesh so that you can keep the edges you want. Then the paint the model as you would want the edges to be in SW and then, and this is the key part, using the “Power SubD” kit will bring it in clean into SW.
Indirect Route 3…T-Splines and Rhino has the capabilities to “Snap to mesh” which is pretty wicked. Overall the process is going to be manual but you’ll get some very nice surfaces to bring into SW.
These are only just a few different methods that I might suggest taking a look at. If you have any more specific questions post up…