---
title: Draw Tool
order: 3
---

The Chisel workspace tool turns the viewport into a drag-to-place editor. Activate it from the toolbar (`T` to toggle the toolbar), then click-drag to spawn primitives, click to select, or `D` for a quick shape picker.

## Activation

In the 3D View, open the toolbar and click the **Chisel** tool icon. The header at the top of the viewport switches to Chisel-specific tool settings.

![Chisel tool in toolbar](../assets/tool-toolbar.webp)

Hover the tool icon to see its tooltip: it opens with the addon version (`v: 3.0.0`) followed by the full hotkey list, so the complete keymap is always one hover away.

![the Chisel active tool tooltip with the full hotkey list](../assets/active-tool.webp)

## Mouse controls

| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| **LMB-drag** | Place a primitive at the cursor and scale it as you drag |
| **LMB-click** | Standard click-select (deselect all others) |
| **Shift + LMB-drag** | Box-select add |
| **RMB** | [Chisel context menu](rmb-menu.md) on a Chisel SDF object |

## Keyboard shortcuts

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `D` | Inline shape + operation picker |
| `Q` | Chisel pie menu (tool-local; `Alt + Q` re-enters the tool from anywhere) |
| `Shift + A` | Primitive submenu without dropping the tool |
| `[` / `]` | Cycle the primitive type of the selection |
| `;` / `'` | Cycle the boolean / displace operation on modifiers targeting the selection |

The `D` popup combines shape and operation pickers in one panel, so you can swap between *Box / Sphere / Cylinder* and *Add / Difference / Union* without leaving the viewport.

`[` and `]` step the selected shape through its primitive type — mesh and curve families stay separate, so a cycle never turns a box into a curve. `;` and `'` step modifiers that target the selection through the boolean / displace operations (Difference → Union → Intersect → Emboss → Engrave; Slice is excluded). Both pairs work only while the Chisel tool is active.

![D-menu picker](../assets/d-menu.webp)

`Shift + A` opens the standard primitive submenu, scoped to Chisel:

![Shift+A menu](../assets/shifta-menu.webp)

## Tool settings (top header)

Three settings live at the top of the viewport while the Chisel tool is active. They apply to the next primitive you draw.

- **Shape** — what gets drawn on LMB-drag (Sphere / Box / Cylinder / Cone / Torus / Capsule / Prism / Trapezoid)
- **Operation** — Add / Difference / Union / Intersect / Slice / Emboss / Engrave. Anything other than *Add* wires the new shape as a modifier on the active object instead of as a free-standing object.
- **Align** — orientation applied at spawn:
  - **Normal** *(default)* — surface normal under the cursor
  - **World** — world axes
  - **Local** — object-local axes under the cursor
  - **Cursor** — Blender's 3D Cursor orientation

## Drag clamping

Tiny drags (under 4 pixels) are clamped to a near-zero spawn scale so a stray click doesn't paste a full-size primitive. To create a default-size primitive, hold the mouse and drag a noticeable distance.

## See also

- [Pie Menu](pie-menu.md) — keyboard alternative for adding primitives
- [Right-Click Menu](rmb-menu.md) — the `RMB` context menu the tool enables
- [Modifiers: Boolean](../modifiers/boolean.md) — what *Operation = Difference / Union / etc.* does
- [Keymap](../keymap.md) — full hotkey list