How I'd do it in Wings, for example, is to make a few beans, slightly different from each other, save them as a group of objects, then keep merging them into a new file, changing their orientation each time.  Sure, some would most likely intersect but you wouldn't really notice the ones in the middle of the pile.  Once I had a satisfactory looking pile, scatter a few individual ones around.

Not as quick and easy - or accurate - as collisions, but a usable work around, IMO.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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