It appears that Studio Splines can be created either thru points, or by poles, but I see no way to toggle between them in the menu.
I have attached images of both types.
So how does someone specify how a Studio Spline is created ?
You can choose the type at the time of creation in the "spline settings" section of the dialog box. After the spline is created, you cannot change its type (you can in NX 8 or later).