Blender 4.0 - 4.1 smooth and sharp edges work different?

Hi all,

did they change how shade smooth with auto sharp edges work in Blender?

I have now to go into edit mode and mark edges to break via the mark edge as sharp tool.

as a shortcut i add a split edge modifer at the end but that isnt the best way to do

Yes. Use the Shade Smooth operator and add an Auto Smooth by Angle modifier on your mesh before editing.

There’s already an ongoing discussion about this change over here:
https://blenderartists.org/t/blender-4-1-auto-smooth-is-now-a-modifier-only

Thank you for that link!