Custom normals polishing #68892

There are a few issues with custom normals workflow at the moment. For example it needs auto-smooth at the moment depending on the artist pipeline.

Added subscriber: @dfelinto

Added subscriber: @Zuorion-4

Added subscriber: @ideasman42

This task should include all issues - or, be split into separate tasks if they are separate projects.

Added subscriber: @1D_Inc

It would be nice to bring ability to preserve boundary vertex normals to a split tool (Y key).
For example, it is impossible to reconstruct such a model as 4 instances, saving UV space, because after split verices normals are changed, and they conflicts with normal map, giving a dent.

Added subscriber: @lichtwerk

Changed status from 'Needs User Info' to: 'Needs Developer To Reproduce'

@ideasman42 : From your actions, I cannot tell what the status is here? What is Incomplete on the Modeling board? Something we should set to Needs Information From User?

Added subscriber: @RohanRathi

Thank you for custom normals preservation ability !
https://www.blender.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/290_normals_preservation.mp4
Indeed, it works with using rip, delete, dissolve, and knife tools.
But is it possible to support Mesh - Split - Selection (Y key) as well?

@1D_Inc : I am still not getting custom normals preserved with many tools (also Knife), see also #97698 (Custom Normals: some operations that alter topology (bisect, loopcut, subdivide, knife, triangulate modifier) destroy them while other operations (e.g. Connect Vertex Path, triangulate operator) preserve them), am I doing something wrong?

Note: some of this should be supported since 93c8955a72

In #68892#1351084, @lichtwerk wrote:
@1D_Inc : I am still not getting custom normals preserved with many tools (also Knife), see also #97698 (Custom Normals: some operations that alter topology (bisect, loopcut, subdivide, knife, triangulate modifier) destroy them while other operations (e.g. Connect Vertex Path, triangulate operator) preserve them), am I doing something wrong?

Well, at least Split by Y was fixed.
By the way, did you tried to compare with 3.0.0? It looks like it was broken quite recently.

Added subscriber: @HooglyBoogly

Just for the records and since it would change the design of this area a bit, here's a related design task: #93551 (Mesh Auto Smooth and Normals Design Changes)

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Custom normals polishing #68892