Is there a way to have a single mesh in curve mode being distorted and stretched along that curve? Not repeated, just one mesh being stretched along the length of the curve.
Also, is there a way to freeze a curve so it doesn’t move at all or get distorted when you click on it? So you could just draw along that curve evenly.
As far as i know there is not that option in curve IMM settings. But may be someone can find a work around that
I hope there will be a way to freeze parts of complex curves when working on them, dealing with complex snapping ropes is a PITA right now…
Achieving below result took me about two hours of painful attempts, undoing as soon as the curves are going crazy on the slightest pull… And the rope is not even the same curve. I had to draw it in 4 parts, hiding the tips into each other, and use move topology to replace clipped rope into right place (and slightly deforming the regular pattern in the process)… not very elegant.
The masking function doesnt even work, as it doesnt restrain any part of the curve to be moved.
InsertMultiMesh is a really really cool tool, but it definately need some refinements, like a “absolute snap” function to avoid curve being clipped into underlying structure, and the ability to be partially frozen in place with mask or parametrics (freeze X segments from start, or with a length percentage).
You might try using a proxy subtool like a cylinder, sculpted into shape and then hide the polygons (make sure it’s a clean line of hidden polys) and use Frame Mesh. The other solution would be to make a repeating segment of rope and use the Micro Mesh technique like Joseph Drust demonstrated to replace the polys on a strip of geometry sculpted into shape. The polys would have all the functionality you were looking for from curves.
But yeah, some more functionality with curves would certainly help.
2 hours, ouch. What you have looks pretty good. Where did the rope brush come from?
I thought about that solution either, but how will you ensure the regular shape of your cylinder polys, especially when you’re deforming it ?
Or am I mistaken, and the micromesh/frame mesh will apply without deformations ?
Do you have a link to the Joseph Drust tutorial, by chance ?
Yep, I really struggled. I tried to repeat the process with smaller curve sections for a better precision, then upped the draw size to widen the rope afteryards, but the main problem about rope being badly clipped inside remains…
The result is acceptable, since I will slightly lower the poly count, it’s made for a 3D-printed miniature project, with a cartoon look, so The details will be lowered a bit to match the style of the drawing 
The rope mesh is made from a shaped cylinder, observing the steps of the really complete BadKing tutorial. The 3 sections need to be slightly posed away from eachother, to let Zbrush weld them properly.
The cool thing is you could make different section lengths from the same base mesh with a Y scaling