>> Or, more correctly, you can't do rounded edges with triangles.
> 
> Maybe you can't, but other people can.

Nope. You can only fake it.

>> If I want a round button on my phone, just select a cylinder and it's 
>> done. You could also CSG a cone onto the end for a bevel, or use a 
>> torus for a smooth bevel. Piece of cake.
> 
> Yup, but what if your button is not perfectly cylindrical, how do you do 
> the bezel/round then?

Depends on exactly which way it isn't perfectly cylindrical in.

Really, you can go a seriously long way using only quadratics and CSG. 
There are only a few constructions I've found that you can't do. You 
can't model highly organic stuff like (say) cars very easily, but most 
man-made stuff has lots of straight edges and simple curves that are 
quite easy to do. Think about it - if you wanted to model the Natural 
History Museum, would you built it out of a few quadrillion triangles? 
Or just cut a few solids out of each other? I know what I'd choose...

>>> And you're stuck with perfectly cylindrical rounds, IRL they are not 
>>> usually used on edges because of the discontinuity in curvature (it 
>>> doesn't give smooth reflections).
>>
>> ...it doesn't?
> 
> No, you get a visible "seam" in the reflection where the cylinder/torus 
> (which has constant curvature) meets the planar surface (which has zero 
> curvature).

Mmm, interesting. In all the years I've been using POV-Ray, I've never 
actually noticed that before...

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