Blender-Schgol: Hard Ops on the menu

 The Hard Ops/Boxcutter course finally gets the Hard Ops itself. I was a bit surprised by how the lessons jump straight in without an overview. If you are watching a training course, you might not fully understand the big picture, and with Hard Ops, the picture is huge.

Before the lesson, the menus

Alt+V Viewport panel...cool!

Q Basic HardOps menu / Settings

MeshTools

Add Modifier

Operations

Array V2

Bevel

Sharpen

Let's start with that top item:

Sharpen

This is an odd one as Hard Ops seems to work on the assumption that models are not auto-smoothed. Hard Ops does this smoothing itself and nicely handles the job by applying appropriate ordering on the modifier stack.

In Blender's Hard Ops, SSharpen (Shift+Q menu) simply marks sharp edges for shading based on an angle, while CSharpen (Ctrl+LMB on Sharpen or Ctrl+Shift+Q menu) is a more advanced, workflow-focused tool that applies Boolean modifiers, adds a Bevel modifier, marks new sharps, and sets up autosmoothing, creating a procedural, live workflow by keeping modifiers intact for quick iteration.

Think of SSharpen as basic marking, while CSharpen automates the entire setup after a boolean, making it essential for efficient hard surface modelling with booleans. 

SSharpen (Simple Sharpen)

• Function: Marks edges as sharp (using Blender's built-in mark sharp) and sets up autosmoothing based on an angle threshold.
• Workflow: Good for basic hard surface detailing, where you manually apply modifiers or work in a more traditional, less procedural way.
• Shortcut: Often accessed via Shift+Q (depending on settings) or within the Q menu. 

CSharpen (Complex Sharpen)

• Function: A procedural powerhouse that applies Boolean modifiers (from the Bool Tool), adds a bevel modifier, marks new sharp edges, and enables autosmoothing, all in one step.
• Workflow: Ideal for non-destructive, live modelling; you can keep booleans and bevels live, apply CSharpen, and continue working without manually cleaning up the modifier stack.
• Shortcut: Often Ctrl+LMB on the Sharpen button or via the Q menu. 

As you make changes to objects, you may need to rethink where sharpness is applied. Rather than manually selecting edges that no longer need to be marked sharp, you can recalculate sharpness.
Resharpen: Ctrl+Shift+S (Sharpen)

Bevel

H for the help menu. Yes, it's very expansive, and you need the help at least when you are getting started. It's otherwise straightforward in basic use.

Ever Scroll

If you are modelling with lots of Booleans, it can be tricky to find the one you need to make tweaks. Ever Scroll is a really effective way to go through and tweak Boolean operations.

Enable Ever Scroll, then use the mouse scroll wheel to fly through the Boolean cuts. 

Explore! There are just so many special functions and features that you can't learn them all at once. You need to time play.

Alt+Ever Scroll generates a Smart Apply!

Smart Apply

Hard Ops all-in-one apply/conversion tool!

After a complex build, you might end up with a lot of Boolean operations that you want to bake into the model by applying their modifiers. Hard Ops has the Smart Apply feature that automatically runs through the modifiers and applies them, but leaves the bevels and smoothing modifiers in place.

These modifiers are not included:

• last bevel
• weighted normal
• last mirror if more than 1 mirror mod is present

LMB - Complete a Smart Apply

Shift+Smart Apply - Create a duplicate of your Smart Apply
Ctrl +Smart Apply - Convert to curve (edge/face)

Alt+Smart Apply - Step

Josh never covers these cases. Here's the official Hard Ops Docs - Smart Apply

Add Modifier

This is a quick way of adding the basic modifiers. As simple as that!

The next lesson is an exercise that doesn't apply for me as it did for Josh. I'll investigate!