Primitives

Chisel provides SDF primitives as building blocks for your models. Each primitive is defined by a mathematical distance function, giving you perfectly smooth surfaces at any scale.

Available Primitives

Basic Shapes

  • Sphere: Perfect sphere defined by radius
  • Box: Rectangular box with optional edge rounding
  • Cylinder: Circular cylinder with optional rounding
  • Capsule: Cylinder with hemisphere caps

Advanced Shapes

  • Cone: Frustum with adjustable cap ratio
  • Torus: Donut shape with major and minor radius
  • Prism: N-sided prism (3/5/6/8) with independent bevel and cap rounding
  • Trapezoid: Box frustum with slanted walls and independent rounding

Curve-Based

  • Curve: 2D curve extrusion using Blender curve objects
  • Curve Tube: 3D Bezier tube with per-point radius (Alt+S)
  • Curve Revolve: Profile revolution around an axis

Adding Primitives

  1. Shift+A > Chisel to open the add menu
  2. Select a primitive type (shown with custom icons)
  3. Or use the Pie Menu (Q) > North-West for the primitive grid

Common Properties

All primitives share these settings in the Object Properties panel:

  • Is Chisel: Toggle to enable/disable SDF
  • Primitive Type: Shape selector
  • Half-Extents: Bounding box dimensions (derived from object scale)

Rounding (most primitives)

  • Rounding: Edge radius (0.0-10.0)
  • Profile: Round / Sharp / Soft / Tight / Chamfer
  • Prism and Trapezoid have independent Bevel and Cap Rounding controls

Note: Sphere, Torus, and Capsule do not support rounding as their surfaces are already smooth.

See Also

  • Rounding - Detailed profile documentation
  • Modifiers - Combine primitives with boolean operations

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