Does "Shift+E" soften edges?

Does “Shift+E” really soften edges? It seems more to me as a shortcut to hiding edges.


As shown in the image above, the lines highlighted are currently “Softened” by the “Shift+E” shortcut.

However, now, after pressing my shortcut key for unhiding all, the highlighted lines reappear.
Is this a bug or was it intentional? I’ve a feeling it’s a bug, as when I search “Soften” in the search bar, the eraser tool says that it can soften lines…
image
However, there’s also this feeling that makes me think that it was intentional. If I “Shift+E” a group, the group disappears and reappear only when I unhide.
With all these, I am really confused if “Shift+E” soften or hides.

No. It hides edges. Ctrl+E softens them.

But, I though “Ctrl+E” smoothens and softens edges?
In which case, how can I just soften selected edges?

Soften and smooth are used as synonyms here. The difference between hiding and softening/smoothing is that hiding does nothing to the adjacent faces while softening tries to make them look as belonging to a single continuous surface.

So, Shift+E only hides things. There’s nothing I can do if I just want to soften some edges?

Use Ctrl+E

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Spend more time reading the replies properly.

A clarification:

  • hide tells SketchUp not to display an edge. You can’t select a hidden edge unless you enable view->hidden geometry, but it has no other implications. There will be a visible, sharp change in shading across the edge, the same as if it was visible.
  • soften tells SketchUp to regard two faces bordering an edge as parts of a single surface so you can select, paint, etc them as a single item. It also tells SketchUp not to display the edge. You can select the individual faces and the edge only if view->hidden geometry is on. Like hidden, soft has no effect on shading.
  • smooth tells SketchUp to blend the shading of the faces across an edge so that the surface looks, well, smooth. A smoothed edge remains visible unless it is also hidden or soft. Softened and smoothed normally are done together; it is rare to smooth an edge that is not also soft.

How do you use Ctrl + E and Shift + E. When I select an object, and use them nothing happens

Might not be quite clear what is meant by this.
e is the keyboard shortcut for the eraser tool.
So what is actually meant by ctrl+e and shift+ e is, if you use crtl with the eraser tool it will soften any edges you touch and shift with the eraser will hide any edges you touch.

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Ok, Thanks. That cleared it up

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