---
title: Carve
order: 2
---

Carve is a difference boolean that cuts with a **grown copy** of another shape. The target's field, expanded by the *Offset*, carves the surface, so the target sits in a pocket slightly larger than itself.

![the Carve modifier settings](../assets/modifiersettings-carve.webp)

Unlike a boolean cutter, a carve target is a **live object**: it keeps rendering, sitting in the pocket it cut.

![a shape sitting in the pocket it carved](../assets/carve.webp)

## Adding a carve

- **Pie menu** (`Q`) or **right-click → Modifiers**: the *Carve* button, next to Emboss and Engrave. Select the target shapes, make the host active, click. Like the other boolean buttons it is dual-function: click adds, `Shift` + click swaps every modifier targeting the selection to Carve, and the button lights up when the selected shape is already a carve target.
- **Modifier panel**: *Add Modifier → Carve* adds an empty Carve to the active object; pick the **Target** in the panel afterwards.
- **Active tool**: set the tool's *Operation* to **Carve** and draw a shape. It is wired as a carve onto every selected shape, and unlike a boolean cutter it keeps rendering. See [Active Tool](../interface/active-tool.md#create-mode).

The operation cycle keys `;` and `'` now step through Difference → Union → Intersect → Emboss → Engrave → **Carve**.

## Parameters

- **Target**: the shape whose grown field does the cutting. A native object search box; type or pick by name.
- **Offset**: how far the target's field is expanded before it carves (default `0.1`, soft max `2.0`). `0` is a plain difference. The offset never goes negative: a carve only ever grows the target.
- **Blend**: enable a fillet along the carve edge, with **Outer** (radius), **Profile** and **Smooth** exactly as on a [Boolean](boolean.md).

There is no *Material Blend*. The pocket always keeps the base object's material, the way a bisect cut does. The target's colour never reaches the face it carves.

## Adjusting the offset

Four ways to drag the offset live:

- the **third ring-arc** at the bottom-right gizmo cluster, outside rounding and blend, in azure, see [Gizmos](../interface/gizmos.md)
- the **Offset** button in the pie's South-West wedge, when a selected shape is a carve target
- **Offset** in the right-click menu
- the Carve row in the pie's East wedge, when the host is active

`Shift` for precision, `Ctrl` to snap, `Space` / `Enter` to confirm, `RMB` / `Esc` to put the value back. The blend is adjusted like any other boolean blend: `Ctrl + B`, the blend arc, or the *Blend* entries in the pie and right-click menu.

## Notes

- The target keeps rendering in its own material and is parented to the host so the two move together.
- **Apply All** never deletes a carve target. **[Clean](../operations/clean.md)** detaches it like any operand; **[Clean Mods](../operations/clean-mods.md)** removes a Carve whose target was deleted.
- With a [Mesh primitive](../primitives/mesh.md) as target, keep *Offset* plus the blend radius within its **Field Margin**; raise the margin and press **Rebake SDF** for a wider carve.

## See also

- [Boolean](boolean.md): the plain difference Carve grows from
- [Emboss & Engrave](emboss-engrave.md): displacing with a shape instead of cutting
- [Rounding & Blending](../rounding-and-blending/index.md): the blend profiles
- [Interface: Gizmos](../interface/gizmos.md): the carve ring-arc