---
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"* — and if you are on the OpenGL backend, *"OpenGL backend, Vulkan is much faster"*.

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 v4 (4.0.0)

Version 4 is about two things: bringing your own meshes into Chisel, and making heavy scenes feel light. Editing stays smooth because Chisel only recomputes the part of a shape you actually touched — and macOS finally gets every speed-up Windows and Linux have.

- **[Mesh to SDF](primitives/mesh.md)** — use any mesh object as an SDF shape. Chisel bakes it to a signed-distance grid and it composes with booleans, blends and modifiers like any native primitive
- **[Ngon primitive](primitives/shapes/ngon.md)** — an editable extruded polygon with viewport vertex dots: drag points, insert on edges, delete with `X`, and bevel each corner independently with all five profiles
- **[Oblong primitive](primitives/shapes/oblong.md)** — a box with bevel-rounded vertical edges and rounded caps, filling the gap between box, cylinder and sphere in one shape
- **[Bisect modifier](modifiers/bisect.md)** — cut a shape with a plane from a custom location/normal, another object's frame, or a polyline fence drawn straight in the viewport
- **[Tool modes](interface/active-tool.md#modes)** — the Chisel tool's LMB now switches between *Select*, *Create* and *Bisect*, with Blender's own selection tools driving Select mode
- **[Files with mesh shapes open instantly](render-engine/display.md#mesh-sdf-storage)** — the baked result is saved inside the `.blend`, so reopening skips the wait
- **Dragging no longer hitches** — only the region you edited is recalculated, and it happens in the background
- **[Small details hold up inside big objects](render-engine/quality.md#brick-detail)** — fine features get extra resolution automatically, without paying for it everywhere
- **Up to 30× faster on Apple Silicon** — plus every editing speed-up Windows and Linux already had
- **No more caps on shaping values** — rounding, bevel, blend, smooth and thickness can go past where the sliders stop

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, bisect, 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, active tool, gizmos
- [Operations](operations/index.md) — convert to mesh, rebuild, clean, veil