Using the Soften Operation

Softens the edges an object. Similar to the Smooth operation though it does not increase the number of faces or points. It also can be used on a selection of faces, edges or points.

The Soften operation has several settings available including Level, Balance, Smooth Angles and Angle. These settings can be adjusted using the Object Layers Panel when a Soften operation layer is active.

The Level setting is used to indicate the strength of the softening effect.

The Balance setting can be used if are not satisfied with how Soften smoothes your object. The technique used to smooth an object involves evaluating the faces and edges that surround each point. You can change how this information is evaluated by adjusting the Balance slider. The left hand side means evaluate using faces only, the right hand side means evaluate using edges only.

The Smooth Angles setting with the Angle setting defines a condition for smoothing. Each point in an object is normally shared by a number of faces. The angle between the faces that share a point is calculated and smoothing occurs at that point if the angle meets the smoothing condition. For example, a cube has an angle of 90 degrees between faces, so a condition of "Less than 90" will result in no smoothing, but a condition of "More than 89" will result in smoothing.