By Jason Hillon (Tumblemonster) (24.245.0.34) on Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 10:29 pm:

The bend tool is the most counter-intuitive thing I've ever used!! I've been trying to figure it out and having no luck, and the manual is no help at all.

Heres my problem: I'm a veteran of 3d studio max and Maya. When I use a bend tool in either of the apps, I expect ti to act on the perpendicular axis of the orthographic view. IN other words, if I use it in the top view, it will bend around the Y axis. Lightwave, however, doesn't do this!! It bends around a different axis! And I can't sort it out! Is there a better explanation of how to use this tool and all the modeling tools? I assume it has something to do with falloff, but the manual is not helping me understand these tools at all.

Thanks for the help

-j

By Psyhke (Jbeck) (24.163.209.122) on Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 10:45 pm:

I agree about the bend tool being a bit hard to get a handle on. Don't really have any suggestions for that, but I thought I'd mention that I've started using the Spline Guide tool for bending. It's much more simple and intuitive for bends, I've found. Just choose the tool and click the object (or selected polys or points) that you want to bend, and a spline guide will be automatically centered on your object. Put it in Bend mode and drag the handles around. Works great. Also for a simple arching bend, change the number of curve points to 3 by typing it in the input box directly.

By Lernie D Ang (Faulknermano) (202.57.91.177) on Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 11:09 pm:

jason, actually you're right. the bend tool is confusing, even after five years of using it. but here's a tip:

i always imagine the bend tool as some sort of a finger. if i want to bend, say, a tube that's standing straight up, i imagine the direction my finger is coming from to bend the mesh. in this case, if the tube is straight up and i want to bend it into and arc, my finger will come from above, hence, i'll bend it from the top view. remember: finger!

psyhke: that's a good one. i think i'll try that out. thanks.

By Rory Little (Rory_L) (211.18.68.84) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 05:05 am:

Funny what we all find difficult. When I started having to use Maya at work I had the devil of a time trying to figure out its bend tool. LW`s always seemed intuitive to me!! Takes all sorts, eh

Thing I like about it is you can modify the tightness of the bend by placing your cursor at a distance from the model in the opposite direction to that of the desired bend. more distance: wider bend!

Hm...Now you`ll tell me that that only worked in 5.6! Complete egg on face

Rory: frustrated LWer

By Lernie D Ang (Faulknermano) (210.14.23.25) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 07:39 am:

"Hm...Now you`ll tell me that that only worked in 5.6! Complete egg on face"

indeed... did it?

but we do have the tool falloff... hmmm

By Steve White (Hrgiger) (24.95.88.69) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 08:56 am:

I'll write down exactly what I do if it will help....
I find the bend tool weird as well but I still get the results I want from it. Here's what I do and I don't know if this will help you or not. When I want to make a pipe make a 90 degree bend, I'll come to the end of the straight pipe, bevel it out about 4 or 5 times an equal distance each time. Then I set my fall off from where the bend is to begin to the beginning of the new extensions I've added.(and you set your falloff by clicking and dragging your right mouse button from the point you want it to bend from) Then I place my cursor right at the tip of the beginning of the falloff marker. Then after that it's just very slight and slow movements of the mouse. You have to experiment to get a feel for what each movement of the mouse does, each direction I mean. Like I said, make slight movements each way, and if it's not doing what you want, come back (all while keeping the mouse button down) to where you started and try another direction. Practice a few dozen times and you'll get a grasp on it. I agree it could be a more intuitive tool but you'll get the hang of it.

By Larry Shultz "SplineGod" (Larrys) (216.244.33.91) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 02:32 pm:

Let say you create a cylinder along the Y-Axis.
When you use the bend tool in the Top view the cylinder will bend around the X or Z axis. The tool will bend your object around an two axis other then the one your looking down. If you use the right mouse button you can draw a constraint object that looks has a thick end and a pointed end. The pointed end pins down where the bend will start from. The thicker end defines the radius of the bend(based on its overall length from the thin end. You can also hit the n key to bring up other bending options.

By Rory Little (Rory_L) (211.18.68.84) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 08:39 pm:

`indeed... did it?`

Yup! And I checked last night. Still does in 7.5.

Larry, thanks! That`s definitely a more accurate method.

Soon as my company`s project`s finished I`m going to dive right into 7.5 and find out aaaaall the juicy bits!

Till then: Maya.

By Ravenn (Rorrkonn) (66.190.141.64) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:35 pm:

I have fault tooth and nail to learn LW and once I do finally get good at LW I really don't think I would want to go get another 3D app and learn that one to.but I see alot of Artist use Deferent Apps.I am guessing the more 3D Apps ya know the more jobs and better pay ya get ?
So once I get good a t LW I should go get another 3D App and learn it to if I want to go Pro ?

By Michael Green (Dodgy) (217.207.247.34) on Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 04:24 am:

You don't have to, but different houses use a lot of different software, so it always helps if you have some experience of the major software. There are free demos of them available, and you can see how they differ, which are better are different tasks etc.

By Rory Little (Rory_L) (211.18.68.84) on Sunday, January 26, 2003 - 07:44 pm:

And for a completely unbiased account of the delights of Maya, look no further than Dodgy`s `My own Personal Reasons for Hating Maya ` thread

Some software companies pay higher salaries to staff with multi platform skills, even if they only need the one app. for the job. It`s one of those stupid, arbitrary, salary grading tricks.

My recommendation is to get happily familiar with LW and then branch out if you have the time. Just don`t dive in too soon, or you`ll get massively confused with all the different keyboard shortcuts and methodologies! Well, you might not, but I know I did! Hehe

R

R

By Matt Gorner (Matt) (217.37.13.153) on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 03:25 am:

a lot of the tools need sorting out IMO, some just aren't intuitive.

By Michael Green (Dodgy) (217.207.247.34) on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 04:32 am:

Some of the tools could do with upgrading to interactive too, while we're at it, like the array tool, that could easily be an interactive tool, like the mirror tool... As is, you have to find the centre of a circular array BEFORE you even enter the tool, as the cursor position info isn't shown when you're in the tool...

By Adrian Lopez (Adrianlopez) (209.91.201.179) on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 10:09 pm:

When I first tried using the bend tool with the axis tree the model would bend in sudden unexpected jumps. I thought Lightwave was malfunctioning until I found this thread.

I'm now able to control the deformation by bending from a viewport that is perpendicular to the axis tree, but I always have problems when I try bending through a viewport that is parallel to the axis tree. I also get erratic behavior when I try bending via the perspective window. Have any of you experienced the same problem when using the bend tool in this manner?