Blender needs a new bender
Ok I love modeling in Blender but the bend tool(shift W) in Blender is really not so good. The issues I see with it are:
It relies on an initial mouse cursor position when you activate the tool so its pretty much imprecise from the start.
There's no snapping of increments in bend.
It relies on an ortho view so not possible to use in the perspective view.
Yes, I know I can use something like a simple deform modifier. But we also need a direct modeling tool that can be used anywhere regardless of where the objects origin is located.
I would really love to see the bend tool replaced with something that has a widget with two ends: One for the base of the bend where it starts and the other end for where the bend stops. Both ends should be able to be snapped to elements. And then it should have a rotate/slide widget to control the amount of bend.
It should work with ctrl key so you can move it in incremental angles.
And really important to have this not rely on working in a ortho view but work well in the perspective viewport.
4 Comments
I don't disagree, but you should remove the screenshot of Modo, blender foundation is cracking down on posts with screenshots of other software that could put them at risk of infringement lawsuits.
* @testure * thanks, I tried to remove it, but it just gives me a 404 error every time. They can remove it if its an issue.
* @Steve * Delete doesn't work for some reason, upload new image, it will replace the old one.
This would be great. The active tools have huge potential with gizmos like this. I've never understood how to use the shift+W bend operation, never been able to get anything useful out of it. (I also think modifiers should adopt gizmos, and then this could also be implemented in the simple deform modifier, which I consistently find very difficult to use...)
Coincidentally I just came across this: developer.blender.org/T57220
So it seems like this is something the devs have thought about before but... it seems a bit incomplete (in William's design, it looks like you just move the two points, so how does the user decide the axis of the bend?) and was authored back in 2018... I hope this isn't forgotten, and that soon devs/a dev will be able to put their attention on to improving the tools, and implementing new ones like this.
Edit: It seems that a more complete design description for William's proposed bend tool is here in this list of gizmo designs: developer.blender.org/T54661