Chisel
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Convert to Mesh

Convert one or more Chisel objects into standard Blender meshes for export, sculpting, or use in any other engine.

Convert

Workflow

  1. Select one or more Chisel objects.
  2. Click To Mesh in the Object Properties panel, open the pie menu (Q) and pick To Mesh, or right-click and choose Convert to Mesh.
  3. The settings dialog shows a live grid overlay previewing the cell size.
  4. Choose the algorithm and adjust settings, then confirm.
  5. The SDF is sampled and a polygon mesh is generated.

Converted meshes go into a Remesh collection. With Replace Original on, the SDF object is converted in place instead.

Launching Convert to Mesh from the right-click menu now opens this options dialog, instead of running with the last-used defaults.

Common parameters

  • Cell Size — 0.001–1.0 Blender units (default 0.1). Grid cell size. Smaller = more detail, slower conversion. Resolution is computed from cell size and the object’s bounding box.
  • SDF Normals — default on. Use the SDF gradient as custom split normals on the converted mesh, so its shading matches the ray-marched preview.
  • Vertex Colors — default off. Bake SDF material colors into a vertex color attribute on the converted mesh.
  • Replace Original — default off. Replace the SDF object in place, or create a new mesh alongside it.

Algorithms

Dual Contouring (default)

Quad-dominant meshes with sharp-edge preservation via QEF solving. Best for hard-surface modeling.

  • Detail Size — 0.0001–0.1, default 0.01. Cell size near features. When smaller than Cell Size, enables adaptive octree refinement.
  • Feature Angle — 5°–90°, default 15°. Normal deviation that triggers refinement (lower angle = more refined detail).

Marching Cubes

Classic triangle-mesh algorithm. Uniform grid, no adaptive refinement, capped at 1024 cells per axis.

Best for smooth, organic surfaces where sharp edges aren’t needed.

Choosing an algorithm

StyleRecommended algorithm
Hard-surface (panels, mech, hardware)Dual Contouring
Organic (creatures, terrain, blobs)Marching Cubes
Both, leaning hard-surfaceDual Contouring with Detail Size < Cell Size
Quick preview while iteratingEither; raise Cell Size for speed

Fidelity in v3

Convert now matches the rendered surface much more closely:

  • Chamfered booleans no longer cut flat faces through the result.
  • Chamfer-smooth blends are no longer clipped flat at the mesh boundary — the meshing domain expands to cover the full blend, so what you see in the viewport is what you get in the mesh.
  • Converted normals match the rendered surface. Normal sampling stays inside tight chamfer fillets, and sharp edges and boolean seams fall back to geometric normals instead of shading as dark spots.

See also