Wow thanks everyone! - i managed to produce a test example similar in principle to sswift's idea in the end,
First create a ring of verts at the correct diameter
parent that ring to a pivot a set distance away (the distance is important as it the bending tool diameter)
rotate the whole ring of verts via the pivot using the same maths as sswift to get the degree of movement per segment
at each movement/rotation capture the global locations of each vert and create a new vert at that global position connected to a bend mesh object
finally skin the new mesh object and I have a bent tube mesh!!!!
Got it working last night - then fiddled with it and broke it!!! - but should have it working tonight again
Thanks very much for the help everyone :)
First create a ring of verts at the correct diameter
parent that ring to a pivot a set distance away (the distance is important as it the bending tool diameter)
rotate the whole ring of verts via the pivot using the same maths as sswift to get the degree of movement per segment
at each movement/rotation capture the global locations of each vert and create a new vert at that global position connected to a bend mesh object
finally skin the new mesh object and I have a bent tube mesh!!!!
Got it working last night - then fiddled with it and broke it!!! - but should have it working tonight again
Thanks very much for the help everyone :)