Creating flexible tube shapes or a pipe in Blender? As with all 3D processes, there are a couple of avenues that can be explored. Do you use polygons? Do you use splines? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
a quick overview about creating tubular or pipes elements with spline and polygons method
No need to wait until you are actually creating pipes to find out. Concept artist & game designer Benjamin Vurlod posts a nice overview that covers using both polygons and splines. Benjamin also compares the two techniques and offers some tips for working with each. Most importantly, it is pretty clear to see the advantages and shortfalls that both polygons and splines inherently have within Blender.
During the course of the tutorial, Benjamin mentions a search for an add-on that could create bevels based on spline angles, saying “As I said in the video maybe there is now a plugin who allow to make a sort of chamfer or filet based on a spline angle and set up manually a radius (like in 3Ds max). But actually I ever find a add-on to make it”. If you do know of something that facilitates that need for Blender, let us know!