Take a scene with 3 objects: 1 armature (translated), 1 cube (translated, rotated and scaled) and Suzanne (not transformed:

1) Parent Suzanne "without Inverse" to the cube so that it gets perfectly aligned within the cube:

2) Clear Suzanne's parenting with "Clear and Keep Transformation":

3) Now parent Suzanne to the armature with "Object without Inverse". Suzanne snaps to the armature as expected:

4) Undo the last parenting and parent Suzanne again but now with "Object" and then "Clear Parent Inverse". Instead of snapping directly to the armature, Suzanne now gets an offset:

Why doesn't Suzanne end up with the same transformations as under point 3 ?

File is here.

waylow If you parent a „Mesh Object“ to an „Armature“ and choose „Armature“ as „Parent Type“ then you don’t need an „Armature Modifier“ for the mesh deformation. Blender in this case uses the „Bone Envelopes“ and acts like an „Armature Modifier“ („Parent Type“ for the deformed „Mesh Object“ must be „Object“) with „Bind to“ set to „Bone Envelopes“:

According to the  posting here, the „Armature Parent Type“ is "much easier to export".

I had to add the rigify add-on in order for that option to appear.

Hi Wayne,

I learned that by unchecking the "Lock Object Modes" box under the Edit menu, you can quickly go through selecting mesh to bone parents without having to leave Pose Mode. See video. Is there a downside to doing it this way? Thanks! 

https://www.screencast.com/t/6RheCOzNN

- Josh