Chisel
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Preferences

Chisel’s addon preferences live in Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Chisel. They cover the addon’s behavior, the appearance of in-viewport gizmos, and a status panel for the underlying GPU and native libraries.

Where settings live

Chisel settings are split across three places. Knowing which is which saves time hunting for them.

  • Addon preferences (this page) — Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Chisel. Theme colors, gizmo geometry, library status, GPU backend.
  • Scene render settings — Render Properties panel. Engine quality, matcap, proxy, baking. See Render Engine.
  • Per-object settings — Object Properties → Chisel. Primitive parameters, modifier list, bake direction. See Interface: Panels.
  • Modifier panel menu — the gear/dropdown at the top of the Chisel modifier list contains panel-local toggles such as Auto-expand new modifiers (whether newly added modifiers start expanded).

Theme

Modal guides, gizmo dots, and arc rings all read from the theme. Each operation has its own color so you can identify a modifier at a glance.

  • Rounding — primitive edge fillets
  • Bevel — vertical edges on prism / trapezoid
  • Blend — boolean blend radius
  • Emboss / Engrave — emboss and engrave seam guides

Modifier dot colors

  • Boolean Difference / Union / Intersect
  • Push / Pull (emboss / engrave)
  • Default modifier — fallback for other modifier types

Sizing

  • Dot Radius — gizmo dot size (default 0.05)
  • Arc Inner Radius — inner radius of the arc gizmo (default 1.60)
  • Arc Width — gizmo arc thickness (default 0.03)
  • Arc Gap — gap between concentric arc rings (default 0.15)

Status

The status panel is informational, but it surfaces the things most likely to bite a new install.

Native library

Shows the version and load status of the library that powers proxy mesh baking and SDF-to-mesh conversion. If a version mismatch is detected after an update, click Update Native Libraries and restart Blender.

GPU backend

Displays the active backend (Vulkan / OpenGL / Metal). If OpenGL is detected on Windows or Linux, the panel recommends switching to Vulkan via Edit → Preferences → System → Backend for a 5–10× speedup. Metal is fully supported on macOS.

Shader status

Shows whether the ray-marching shaders are compiled. The Recompile Shaders button kicks off a fresh compilation in the background — useful after a driver update or when something looks off.

First viewport use after a fresh install or driver swap will pause briefly while shaders compile. See the shader compilation note on the home page for the full picture.

See also