problems deforming rectangle along curved path
 

Is it possible for Maya 5.0 to deform a long rectangle along a somewhat complex curved path using motion paths without twisting or kinking the rectangle? I’d think this simple task would be child’s play for a robust program like Maya.

Yeah, Maya can do that. Just draw a rectangle and a path and then extrude the rect along the path. I would be sure to have Use profile normal and Fixed Path checked. Also, you could be seeing kinks if you tesselation is set too low. Try upping it.

I've gotten close using extrude along a path. The problem I'm having going that route is the tube gets narrower at tight bends in the path. I'd like uniform size along the entire path. Also I ultimatly want to animate that tube traveling along down the path. Again when ever I attempt animating the tube I get quirky results. Do you have simple solutions for this?
Thats why I played with animating a rectangle cube using the "flow path object". It seems to produce the closest and simplest solution,
Thanks