Questions About Bending

[PeterC (PC)]

*looks over the info line*.. No problem, I got this.. *goes through selecting 5 reference points*..
"Configuration doesn't result in Bending"... O_o

I did a Chandelier, and a 'wire/cord' a few days back, and to be honest I hopped over to 3dsmax to use splines>geometry and OBJ exported those back to wings to edit rather than trying to figure out the more complex clamped Bend types. And I hate trying to model in max
Ok I feel bad now, I gave it a shot just now and played around with it for a few minutes.. I think I finally figured out how to bend a rod in multiple spots
I think the biggest problem with Bend/Clamped Bend might be the completely arbitrary names, like rod "top","bottom" and "center" (according to whom? what if the rod is laying horizontally and there is no top or bottom? ) Whenever it asked for 'rod center' for example I would.. well.. selected the center of the section I wanted to bend.. :} but that would always result in both ends of the section bending out and away from the rest of the mesh, making it useless. I thought I just 'clamped' the bottom dammit, why is it moving away from the mesh? I would think.. Rod "center" actually = Rod 'bend around/from point'??? with that in mind things started to behave more as I'd expect.

I'd also change Bend normal to always be bend axis I think.. if I'm gonna bend a pipe to the Left or Right, I'm obviously gonna look at it from the Front.. so selecting a point in the center of the rod (facing me, an axis to bend around) seems much more logical than having to rotate the view, and selecting a point on the side.. facing left/right.. but that's a separate issue I guess

So... I just said a lot and I'm not sure what my point was..
Ahh yes, play around with it, and see if thinking of 'rod center' as 'rod point to bend around/from' instead does what you're after.
All that being said, I gotta agree with PzPaul, I'm not sure I see where bend would be used to make the seat.. A lot of face inset/extrude etc, but bending?