How to bend a solid?

RoatanBill
RoatanBill
in 3D Modeling

I'd like to provide an illustration of a bent piece of 1" square steel tubing (.065 wall thickness) for a welding forum. It's part of a drawing that in real life would use a 'tubing bender' to actually create the part.

I know of a way (PEdit) to bend a polyline and could simulate a solid, but I'd actually like to bend an actual solid.

Is this possible?

Comments

  • Richard Webb
    Richard Webb

    I'm not sure how to bend a solid other than by using the DMDEFORM family and I'll admit that I'm not well versed in their capabilities.

    However, making a bent solid is straightforward. Extruding a square along an arc and then shelling the resulting solid would do it. Or, offset the square and revolve the area around an axis. The extrude-along-path method could be expanded to a pline as well as a simple arc.

  • Jim Canale
    Jim Canale

    This is a feature i need too, and I don't believe there is currently any way to conveniently bend pipes or rods or wires. I'm making 3D models of circuit boards. Many have through hole components with round or square leads bent at a particular radius and inserted into the board. The manufacturer's component models all have straight leads. Slicing off the leads, and then extruding a circle along a path can be a painfully slow way to install DOZENS of components.

  • Maxim_Shilovsky
    Maxim_Shilovsky

    As far as I am aware, currently there is only a tool to bend sheet metal parts (smBend), but no general direct modelling tool for bending. I would recommend to create a support request for this feature. It will help us to understand the requirements for such tool.

    Best regards,
    Maxim Shilovsky.

  • Tim Neumann
    Tim Neumann

    Turbocad can do tube bending from what I gather on their website.

    I thought there was a video out there somewhere showing Bricscad could do this.