Two things (learned after much experimentation, confirmed by tech support and other users); Particles never save their simulation. You can not "scrub" through a particle simulation, or go to a particular frame to save sime; in all cases the particles will run the complete simulation up to the present frame. Particles "leak" from solids. Apparently their surface detection is not that accurate. You can not currently fill a bowl from a particle fountain (well, you can, but the particles will be constantly leaking out the bottom and need to be replenished.) According to an Eovia tech this was considered a bug and they were working on it. I, too, was hoping to do some interesting things with particle pools -- creating ripples by dropping objects into the pool, for one thing. At the current state of the program that does not work very well. On the other hand, metaball particles work really nicely for water trickling down a rocky slope...