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Blender 4.1: Modeling

Meshes

Auto Smooth

The "Auto Smooth" option has been replaced by a modifier node group asset (89e3ba4e25).

  • The base state of meshes is now the same as having "Auto Smooth" on with an angle of 180 degrees in older versions:
    • Face corner "split" normals are calculated when there is a mix of sharp and smooth elements.
    • Custom normals are used if available.
  • The modifier node group asset sets sharpness by the angle between faces.
  • Blender automatically chooses whether to calculate vertex, face, or face corner normals given the presence of custom normals and the mix of sharp/smooth edges and faces.
  • In edit mode, the new Set Sharpness by Angle operator can be used to set sharpness, or "Shade Smooth by Angle" in other modes (78963b466b).
  • For more information on the procedural smoothing modifier, see the Nodes & Physics section.
  • For more information on the Python API changes, see the Python API section.

Other

  • A render "simplify" setting adds the ability to turn off calculation of face corner and custom normals in the viewport (912c4c60d8).
  • Shape Keys can now be locked to protect them from accidental edits via sculpting or edit mode transformation tools and operators. (b350d7a4c3, Manual)
  • Face corner normals are cached and are recalculated in fewer cases (62dbef895b).
  • The creation of mesh topology maps used in geometry nodes and normals calculation is parallelized and elsewhere and can be over 5 times faster (bb80716244).

Curves

The new curves type supports new operators.