Thanks again Zoohead for explaining a confusing tool, particularly your clear explanation of how the “Zone of Influence” extends to infinity. Yesterday astronomers reported an anomalous perturbation in Earth’s movement in its orbit at the exact same moment I was using the Bend Modifier. Coincidence?
I use the Bend Modifier occasionally, but for a simple example like your tubes with multiple precise bends, I would use a spline path for a Sweep. A paper clip is flat on one plane, so that makes it easier compared to something with compound bends in 3D space. I don’t do animation, so the following tips are intended for beginners who might think splines are mysterious and hard to use.
Splines are powerful and essential for most of my designs. Here are four handy techniques I use regularly to create and tweak splines, usually to make a path for a Sweep:
1) A spline can be quickly started with the Properties set for “Linear” to set hard angles. Then switch to “Bezier spline” and select curve points and change to Soft Interpolation. That gets me close to what I want, then I do a little tweaking. (I added keyboard shortcuts for Spline Tool adjustments: Y = Hard Interpolation, U = Soft Interpolation.)
2) Per Frank Beckmann: Use horizontal and vertical nodes for a flat spline:
3) For more complex curves, there is a Controlled Spline script from Hiroto Tsubaki that starts with a series of small cubes placed in 3D space to guide where the spline passes through. It’s easy to position the cubes and set the curves to create very complex and precise 3D splines.
https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/13464/post-118002
4) Another extremely useful script from Hiroto: PolygonToSpline lets you derive a spline from an object.
https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/13464/post-117994