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Iam using Blender version 4.1.1. I wanted to smoothen out a cylinder with 14 vertices by using the Smooth by angle Modifier, so that only the edges on the middle get shaded to get me a good, curved effect in this low poly cylinder. Part where the shading is needed is indicated using a blue marker Though I can just enable the Ignore sharpness to get the required effect, I didn't do so since it would just ignore all sharp edges wont it? The main reason I wanted to use Smooth by angle was to control the shading so that only the faces with a certain angle between them gets shaded, but I couldn't do it even after some wild guessing. So I thought that I couldn't find the correct angle.

I don't know If my understanding of the modifier is completely wrong or just missing some steps.

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    $\begingroup$ You need to right click > Shade Smooth if you want the modifier to work, if it still doesn't work it must be because you have marked the edges as sharp, to remove switch to Edit mode and Ctrl E > Clear Sharp $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented Jul 12 at 7:55
  • $\begingroup$ @moonboots I was always confused regarding that, since using shade smooth gives weird shading artifacts but after applying Smooth By Angle modifier, the problem was resolved. Thanks for the Info $\endgroup$
    – Tere_incipit
    Commented Jul 12 at 9:21

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As @moonboots said, you still have to set Shade Smooth on the object, the Smooth by Angle modifier is kind of confusingly named, because it is rather sharpening by angle when the object is already shaded smooth. Ignore Sharpness does not mean it ignores edges that are sharp regarding their angle, instead it ignores edges which were marked sharp.

To make sure none of the vertical edges are sharp go into Edit Mode, select all with A and if you are in Edge Select mode then you can right-click > Clear Sharp, in vertex Select or Face Select you have to use Ctrl+E to bring up the edges context menu.

One more thing, it looks like your cylinder has a resolution of a 12 faces loop, which means on a full turn of 360° the angles between the faces are 30°. Now this is the default value the Smooth by Angle modifier uses, which can result in some edges being smoothed and some being sharp, due to precision errors. So it is probably best to choose a slightly different value for this cylinder. Even 30.1° would work.

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    $\begingroup$ "Smooth by Angle modifier is kind of confusingly named, because it is rather sharpening by angle when the object is already shaded smooth." - Thank you! I was confused by this recently... $\endgroup$
    – Markus von Broady
    Commented Jul 12 at 8:16
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    $\begingroup$ @MarkusvonBroady The problem with this naming is, the modifier is mostly used to sharpen above a certain angle which only has an effect if the object is shaded smooth beforehand, but in a way it does smoothen as well, for example if you enable the Ignore Sharpness option - then it does smoothen edges which were explicitly marked sharp (as long as their angle is below the threshold angle). $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Commented Jul 12 at 8:23
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    $\begingroup$ @GordonBrinkmann Using 30.1 worked well in dealing with random sharp edges. I was always confused regarding How the Smooth By Angle Modifiers works and what does the Ignore Sharpness do. So basically, Smooth by Angle modifier is used to Control the Shading effect after applying "Shade Smooth" to sharpen the faces which has an angle above the "Set Threshold Angle" between them. Thank You so much!!, I was totally confused by this $\endgroup$
    – Tere_incipit
    Commented Jul 12 at 9:30

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