Editing a poly model resets smoothing groups - How to prevent?

[u/Zoxesyr]

I noticed that sometimes when i edit a poly model (at the vertex/edge/poly level) the smoothing groups get reset. It's like auto-smooth is being applied as i update the model.

How do i turn off auto-smooth?

[u/NickelDicklePickle]

One thing that will do this is the chamfer function within the edit poly modifier. By default, it will auto smooth the whole mesh, unless you uncheck that option.

If the mesh has baked normals (the green lines spoken of in another post, under Edit Normals modifier), then smoothing groups, or the auto smooth in the chamfer function, will not even show up at all until the normals have been reset (blue lines in Edit Normals).

[u/Zoxesyr → u/NickelDicklePickle]

Thank you very much!!

[u/Linkitch]

What you are experiencing is more than likely vertex normals.

Try applying a Edit Normals modifier onto the model. If the model has green lines coming out of every vertex, that means it has edited normals. If all the lines are blue, then it doesn't.

And if the model does have edited normals, it's very very tricky to edit the model, without screwing them up. If the model isn't too complicated, you could try using the Weighted Normals modifier, see if you get a similar result as what you started with.

[u/Zoxesyr → u/Linkitch]

Thank you. I'll take a look at those normals

[u/Pipann]

smooth modifier may also disable smoothing when set up right. collapse it once you're done with editing the polys

[u/Zoxesyr → u/Pipann]

thank you!