---
title: Chisel
order: 1
aliases:
  - index
---

Chisel turns Blender into a real-time SDF modeling studio. Carve with math, not meshes — every surface is mathematically smooth, every boolean blends like molten metal, and the ray-marched viewport shows the final result as you sculpt.

## First-run shader compilation

The first time you enable the Chisel render engine in a session, the GPU compiles the ray-marching pipelines on the fly. **Expect a noticeable pause on the first viewport frame** — typically a couple of seconds on Vulkan, longer on OpenGL. Compilation runs in parallel and is non-blocking, but the viewport will look empty until the first variant is ready.

A few things to know:

- **It's a one-time cost per session.** Subsequent renders use the cached pipeline. The compiled binaries are also persisted to disk, so warm starts after the first run are much faster.
- **Vulkan is dramatically faster than OpenGL.** If your status bar shows the OpenGL backend, switch to Vulkan in Blender's preferences (`Edit → Preferences → System → Backend`) for a 5–10× compile and runtime speedup.
- **The pie menu warns you.** When you press `Q` before shaders are ready, the menu shows *"Shaders not compiled — first run may take longer"* with a manual recompile button.
- **You can pre-warm.** From the addon preferences (`Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Chisel`), the *Recompile Shaders* button kicks off compilation without needing to add geometry first.

If you ever see flat shading, blank silhouettes, or stalls on the first interaction with a new feature (booleans, mirrors, curve primitives), it's almost always shader compilation finishing in the background. Wait a few seconds and the viewport will catch up.

## Why SDFs?

Traditional mesh modeling trades resolution for smoothness. SDFs don't trade — they compute. A sphere stays spherical at any scale, a blend stays blended through every boolean in the stack, and a rounded corner is a math constant, not a subdivision setting. Production-ready surfaces, no topology headaches.

## What's new in v2 (1.2.0)

- **Array & Circle Array** modifiers with smooth blending between copies
- **Curve Tube** — 3D Bezier sweep with per-point radius via `Alt+S`
- **Curve Revolve** — sweep a 2D profile around an axis
- **N-sided prism** (3, 5, 6, 8) with independent bevel and cap rounding
- **Five rounding/blending profiles** — Round, Sharp, Soft, Tight, Chamfer
- **Built-in matcaps** with color tint
- **Progressive settled rendering** for sharper frames once the viewport settles
- **EEVEE Next** compatibility for Blender 4.5

For a complete list, see the [changelog](changelog.md).

## Where to start

- [Getting Started](getting-started/index.md) — install Chisel, system requirements, first launch
- [Primitives](primitives/index.md) — every SDF shape and its parameters
- [Modifiers](modifiers/index.md) — booleans, mirror, array, emboss, twist, bend, solidify
- [Rounding & Blending](rounding-and-blending/index.md) — the five profiles and when to use each
- [Materials](materials/index.md) — per-object color and the Chisel node editor
- [Render Engine](render-engine/index.md) — viewport quality, matcap, proxy mesh, baking
- [Interface](interface/index.md) — panels, pie menu, draw tool, gizmos
- [Operations](operations/index.md) — convert to mesh, rebuild, clean, veil