So I thought I'd start the exercise by seeing what I can do with the Bevel Modifier, but it doesn't seem to be working. Changing the width does nothing; nor does changing the auto-smoothing. Here's a small clip showing the problem:
https://a.pomf.cat/hijaus.webm
Am I missing something here? If I create a cube, the Bevel Modifier works fine on that, but not the exercise model. Changing to angle or bevel weights doesn't change anything.
Hey John, I can't view the video so I'm not entirely sure, but my guess is that if you unchecked Clamp Overlap all hell would break loose. If so, you've got some edges too close together. I just tested on the start file and it appears to work for me out of the box. Have you edited the mesh in any way?
Also, I don't get notifications for followups to questions just yet, so please @ mention jlampel and I'll see it.
@jlampel Sorry about that, I guess all browsers haven't learned the webm format yet. Also I posted the wrong one anyway.
This will work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSd1AvuoVY4
Clamp overlap is checked, as it was by default, but no matter how much width I add, it doesn't change anything, even when I type in a million (which didn't get encoded to the video).
On a side note, I didn't get a notification for your answer here either. I've been checking this question once a day. Might want to look into that because there might be several people who don't know they've received answers.
Alright so it turns out I didn't actually try unchecking clamp overlap. That fixed my problem, but as you alluded, it's causing some severe artifacts.
On a side note, I noticed this artifact in one of the screw holes: https://i.imgur.com/wecAecw.png
vvaculik Ah, I just noticed that you're talking about the high poly object instead of the low poly object. It's definitely because there are some vertices that are too close together, but that shouldn't matter if you switch the limit method the weight and add the edge bevel weight manually (not vertex bevel, that's easy to do by accident).