modo has the ability to freeze the smoothing of a geometric surface by baking out the current values displayed in any 3D viewport into a vertex normal map. The smoothing is controlled by the 'Smoothing' value set in the 'Material -Reflective' properties of a surfaces material layer prior to baking. To create, simply select the item you wish to create the vertex map for and use the command 'Set Vertex Map Normals', found under the Vertex Map menu of the menu bar. Once generated, the vertex map, called "vert_normals", can then be found in the section 'Other Maps' of the vertex map list.
Important: When a vertex normal map is associated with a mesh item, modifying the smoothing value for that surface will no longer affect the actual smoothing of the surface in the viewports as vertex normal maps supersede any other settings. To modify the values, you'll need to remove the map and generate a new one with the new values or apply the 'Split Vertex Normals' command with an appropriate edge selection.
