A forming apparatus and method for forming a workpiece used a medical procedure is provided. A controllable bending machine for bending the workpiece is provided. A template is manually formable. The template has a shape sensor so as to sense a shape of the template. A controller receives template shape data from the shape sensor and operates the bending machine in accordance with the template shape data. The bending of the workpiece includes a spring back compensating operation which performs a first bending operation on the workpiece in accordance with the template shape data, acquires workpiece shape data from one of the shape sensor re-disposed associated with the workpiece, or another shape sensor associated with the workpiece, and performs a second bending operation compensating for spring back. A method employs the template for workpiece measurements and the forming apparatus using the measurements for forming the workpiece.
