How do you just 'add more geo'? Remake the entire thing? Is there a way to add more edges to a cylinder after its already editable and not be a loop cut?
Check this out, its not perfect but with some adjustments it could do the work. 1. Make a cylinder with square subdivisions. 2. Chamfer all the verts and weld. 3. Extrude and bevel by polygon all faces. 4. Add supporting edges as you wish. 5. Add turbosmooth. 6. Add bend modifier.
There you have your answer. Add quadchamfer or chamfer separated by SG and woila if you are using max. If not you can add a "bevel modifier" and subdivide on top of that should be the same.
@Martin_H: Okay the simplest way I can say that is, I never used to collapse a turbosmooth in the stack and work on the high res mesh to add details, I used to add edge loops even if sometimes it gave me pinches, but now I let the turbosmoothed make more geo and edge loops for me and then I collapse and add the details.…