I need to make a flex piece of pipe between two pipes and the only way I have been able to show a similar way flex pipe looks like is to make a circle the same radius and draw a pline to the end point and and extrude it to the path. This is not the way it should be but it works for now. autodesk needs to really invest time and money to show real conduit fittings and bends to look like they would in the field.
Actually the Bending Radii got a lot better since previous versions. I sent them the trig from GreenLee Conduit Bending Handbook a couple years ago and when 2011 came out they got it pretty close.
As for the flex I strongly agree. I use piping's flex and it's a pain to manipulate the size and orientation if the flex has to change. Another one to think about adding for us electrical detailer's is buss duct.
Agree, what I found to show bus duct is just draw the outline in 2d and draw the path you want and extrude it the path you want it. Keep in mind that 2d polylines don't work for z use 3dpoly and it should work if not just use sections for all bends.