---
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: 4.1.0`) 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; release, `Space` or `Enter` confirms. 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 / Carve. Anything other than *Add* wires the new shape as a modifier on the selected objects instead of as a free-standing object, so those operations need at least one selected Chisel shape. **Carve** is the odd one out: the drawn shape keeps rendering, sitting in the pocket it carves, with the offset started at `0.1`, see [Carve](../modifiers/carve.md).
- **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 (four per row, ending with Carve), 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