---
title: First Launch
order: 2
---

After installing Chisel, you'll switch on the render engine, spawn a primitive, and try a smooth boolean — the core loop of every Chisel scene. Plan on 5 minutes.

## Your first SDF object

### 1. Start a fresh scene

`File → New → General`. The default scene gives you a cube, light, and camera. Delete the cube (`X`) — we'll draw our own Chisel shapes.

### 2. Switch to the Chisel engine

Open *Render Properties* (camera icon on the right) and set **Render Engine** to **Chisel**.

![Pick the Chisel render engine](../assets/rendersetings-pickrenderer.webp)

The viewport will go quiet for a moment — that's the GPU compiling the ray-marching shaders. On Vulkan or Metal it takes a couple of seconds; on OpenGL it can take 30 seconds or more. *This only happens once per session* — the compiled pipelines are cached to disk, so later sessions warm up far faster. See the [shader compilation note](../index.md#first-run-shader-compilation) if you're curious about what's happening under the hood.

### 3. Set viewport shading to Material Preview

In the top-right of the 3D viewport, click the third sphere icon. The Chisel engine only renders in *Material Preview* — *Solid* and *Rendered* won't show ray-marched surfaces.

### 4. Activate the Chisel tool

Press `Alt + Q` anywhere in the 3D View to activate the *Chisel* tool (or click its icon in the toolbar). Hover the tool icon: its tooltip opens with the version (`v: 3.0.0`) followed by the full hotkey list, so the active-tool shortcuts are always one mouseover away.

> In v3 the Chisel hotkeys are tool-local. `Q` opens the pie menu and `Shift + A`, `D`, the quick-booleans and the rest only fire while the Chisel tool is active — `Alt + Q` is the one shortcut that works from any tool to switch into Chisel.

### 5. Add a Chisel primitive

With the tool active, press `Q` to open the Chisel pie menu and pick **Box** from the primitive grid. A new SDF box drops at the 3D cursor.

![Pie menu](../assets/pie-menu.webp)

You can also use `Shift + A → Cube` (the tool's add menu), or **LMB-drag** in the viewport to draw a box freehand.

### 6. Tweak the box parameters

In *Object Properties*, scroll to the *Chisel* section. Try the following — every change updates live:

- **Rounding** — push it up to round the corners.
- **Profile** — switch between Round, Sharp, Soft, Tight, Chamfer to change the corner shape.
- **Object scale** (`S` in the viewport) — boxes resize cleanly without subdivisions.

![Object SDF settings](../assets/objectsettings-sdf.webp)

### 7. Add a smooth boolean

Now carve a hole in your box.

1. With the box selected, press `Q` and pick **Sphere** from the primitive grid. A sphere is added to the scene.
2. Move the sphere so it overlaps the box (`G` to grab).
3. Select the sphere, then **Shift-click** the box so the box is the active object.
4. Press `Alt + −` (or `Alt + NumPad −`). The sphere is wired in as a Boolean Difference modifier on the box.

![Boolean Difference](../assets/boolean-difference.webp)

Open the box's modifier panel, find the new Boolean modifier, and drag the **Blend Radius** up — the seam between the box and the carved hole becomes a smooth fillet.

### 8. Save the file

`File → Save As`. Chisel scenes save normally — the SDF data lives in object properties on the host objects.

## What just happened

You set up a scene, enabled the Chisel engine, drew a primitive, tuned it, and combined two shapes with a smooth boolean — all without dealing with topology. That's the loop you'll repeat for every Chisel project.

## What's next

- [Primitives](../primitives/index.md) — every SDF shape and its parameters
- [Modifiers](../modifiers/index.md) — booleans, mirror, array, twist, bend, solidify, emboss
- [Rounding & Blending](../rounding-and-blending/index.md) — the five fillet profiles in detail
- [Render Engine](../render-engine/index.md) — viewport quality, matcap, baking
- [Raymarching & SDFs](raymarching.md) — what's happening underneath