by 3D CADence·Modeling
Illustrative cover generated by AnyPlugins — no product screenshot available.
Polygon Smoothing Groups earns its place in the superhive library by pulling smoothing-group creation, sharp-edge and UV-seam control, and shading utilities into a single set of Blender panels, with a pie menu for hotkey access.
Polygon Smoothing Groups is a Blender add-on built around managing shading, sharp edges, and UV seams on 3D models. It uses two working modes: Auto Sharp, where edges between different groups become sharp and edges inside a group stay smooth, and Auto Seam, where seams are created on the edges between different groups. Display Sharp and Display Seams toggle the viewport overlay for each.
Groups can be built several ways. Group By Angle assigns polygons to the same group when the angle between them falls below a set threshold, with a Strict Mode that skips single-polygon islands. Assign RG gives a selection a unique group number chosen to avoid merging with neighbours, while Init from Sharps and Init from Seams generate groups from boundaries already on a mesh, and Copy to Sharps or Copy to Seams transfers a layout between modes.
A preview mode shows each polygon's group number on hover and supports selecting, merging, creating, and deleting groups. Selection tools cover sharp and seam borders, plus Island Select, Select NG, and Select By SG. All key functions are also available from a pie menu triggered by a user-assigned hotkey.
Polygon Smoothing Groups is best for blender artists, modelers, and technical specialists managing shading, sharp edges, and UV seams on 3D models.
Polygon Smoothing Groups is completely free to download and use.
Polygon Smoothing Groups can transfer a group layout between its two modes using Copy to Sharps and Copy to Seams. If Auto Seam is active, copying moves all seam groups over to sharp groups and creates the matching sharp edges, and the reverse works in Auto Sharp mode. You can also start from boundaries that already exist with Init from Sharps or Init from Seams, which builds groups from the sharp edges or UV seams present on the model. Together these options let you keep sharp and seam layouts consistent across both workflows.
Polygon Smoothing Groups places its key functions in a pie menu called by a hotkey that you assign in Blender's preferences. The menu opens directly under the cursor and gives access to the toolkit without moving the mouse to the side panel. Alongside the pie menu, the add-on has a main panel for group creation and mode toggles, plus a tools panel covering sharp and seam operations and shading utilities such as Shade Smooth Selected, Shade Flat Selected, and Selection to Border.
Polygon Smoothing Groups can build groups from boundaries that already exist on a mesh through Init from Sharps and Init from Seams. In Auto Sharp mode it creates groups from sharp edges, and in Auto Seam mode from UV seams. This is aimed at continuing work on an older model that already has sharps and seams assigned before you started using the add-on. From there you can refine the layout with the preview mode, which shows each polygon's group number on hover and lets you select, merge, create, and delete groups.
Polygon Smoothing Groups is listed as free in this catalog. For current licensing terms and any usage conditions, check the developer's page, since these details can change over time. The add-on comes from 3D CADence and covers shading, sharp-edge, and UV-seam management for Blender meshes through its main panel, tools panel, and pie menu. A demo video is also available.
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