I am trying to figure out how to smooth STLs I’m importing (or maybe any imported geometry?) where parts of the object are curved and others are not.
I thought Object Data > Auto Smooth might do it, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. The top of the handle and flanged base are rendering with the facets visible. Obviously I’d like to render them as smooth…
What’s the “best” way to do this? I pretty much have to work with STL imports.
With imported object, always worth checking for custom split normals. If these are present, auto-smooth has zero effect. Look in the geometry tab below auto smooth and vertext groups. If you do have them, it will say “clear custom split normals”. Simply click that then apply auto-smooth. If it says “add custom…” then the issue must be elsewhere.
Second gues, the faces are actually split within the model? Go into edit mode, select all polys, do merge by distance. See if it removes any vertices and also ends up smoothing the object. Of course, I am assuming it isn’t set to sahde flat rather than shade smooth, becaues if so, auto-smooth has zero effect.
Thanks again - no effect.
It’s not set to shade smooth because then the base gets all messed up… I think I remember seeing something about marking edges sharp/seams… tried a few things but none seems to stop the smooth shading from making the bottom weird. I think this (edge sharpening/creasing) may be the answer, though!
Can you share the object? I can look at it and see if I can spot something else.
Hey! Sorry, just saw your message… not getting notifications for some reason.
Attached! Thanks
Stamp v1_Stamp v1_Handle_1_Body1_Handle.stl (185.8 KB)
Ok, the item on the left is the original STL file imported, with a couple of sharp edges and smoothing with auto-smooth of 30 degrees applied. The ‘tweaked’ one is just tidied up geometry wise.
StampHandle.blend (1.2 MB)
