---
title: Active 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 pick what LMB does: select, draw primitives, or cut with a bisect line.

## 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: 4.0.0`) 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)

## Modes

The first control in the tool header is a **Mode** popover deciding what the LMB gesture does. It comes before the mode-specific options because it changes what all of them mean.

| Mode | LMB does |
|---|---|
| **Select** *(default)* | Blender's own fallback select tool — Tweak / Box / Circle / Lasso |
| **Create** | Drag draws a new SDF primitive |
| **Bisect** | Drag draws a cutting line; every selected SDF object is cut |

Select mode is genuinely Blender's selection, not a reimplementation: picking it flips the tool to Blender's fallback keymap, so the Tweak / Box / Circle / Lasso picker in the viewport header (and its Set / Extend / Subtract / Invert / Intersect mode row) works exactly as it does with any other tool. That means the Chisel tool can now stay active all the time — you no longer have to leave it to select normally.

### Create mode

Drag to place a primitive at the cursor and scale it live. The header gains **Shape**, **Operation**, and **Align** popovers:

- **Shape** — Sphere / Box / Oblong / Ngon / 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 selected objects 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

### Bisect mode

Drag to cut. Select the SDF objects you want to cut first; each one gets its own [Bisect modifier](../modifiers/bisect.md) whose plane passes through that object's own origin, projected onto the drawn plane. The header gains a **Bisect Shape** popover:

- **Line** — one drag, one infinite cutting plane
- **Polyline** — drag the first segment, then click to add corners; `Space` or `Enter` accepts, `Backspace` removes the last corner

In both, `F` flips which side is kept and `Ctrl` toggles angle snap. The shaded side of the preview is the side being cut away.

## Mouse controls

| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| **LMB-drag** | Mode-dependent: native select / place a primitive / draw a bisect |
| **LMB-click** | Click-select under the cursor (deselect all others) |
| **Shift + LMB-drag** | Box-select add — available in every mode |
| **RMB** | [Chisel context menu](rmb-menu.md) on a Chisel SDF object |

## Keyboard shortcuts

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `D` | Mode picker with the current mode's options |
| `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 |

`[` 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.

## The `D` menu

`D` opens a split popup: a narrow rail of mode icons down the left edge, and the picked mode's options in the body on the right. Clicking a rail icon swaps the body in place, so the popup doubles as the fastest way to change mode.

**Select** shows Blender's own fallback-tool picker plus its selection-mode row:

![D menu in Select mode](../assets/d-menu-select.webp)

**Create** shows the shape grid, the operation grid, and align:

![D menu in Create mode](../assets/d-menu-create.webp)

**Bisect** shows the Line / Polyline choice and the gesture's keys:

![D menu in Bisect mode](../assets/d-menu-bisect.webp)

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

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

## 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: Bisect](../modifiers/bisect.md) — what the Bisect-mode gesture creates
- [Modifiers: Boolean](../modifiers/boolean.md) — what *Operation = Difference / Union / etc.* does
- [Keymap](../keymap.md) — full hotkey list