Gizmos

Chisel draws handles in the viewport for modifiers, shapes, rounding and blends, and an outline on every shape that cuts or joins another. By default they show only while the Chisel tool is active.

What shows where

Tool bar switches

The end of the Chisel tool’s header carries four icons and a drop-down arrow, joined like Blender’s own Show Gizmo button.

Top to bottom, as on screen:

Every row is on by default except Dots. A row is greyed out while its group switch is off. The adjust arcs belong to no group, so no Chisel switch hides every gizmo at once; Blender’s Show Gizmo toggle in the viewport header does. Render Properties ▸ Gizmos has the same switches, plus each family’s Active Object and Chisel Tool gates.

Which shapes show handles

• Modifier handles show on the active shape while it is also selected. Every modifier has its own set: a shape with two Arrays (or Bends, Twists, Solidifies, Sweeps, Lattices, Bisects) shows a set for each. Select modifier rows in the Tape tree to show only those modifiers’ handles; select the shape’s own row, or select in the view or the Outliner, to show them all again. Grabbing a handle makes its modifier the active one.
• Shape handles show only in the Chisel tool’s Edit state (Tab), on every selected shape. A view shows at most 100 of them: the active shape’s always, the others’ a whole shape at a time; see Many shapes.

Modifier handles, outlines and arcs show in both the tool’s Object and Edit states.

Using handles

• Picking: the cursor picks a handle from a short distance away, the same distance at any zoom, and only near where the handle is drawn. The adjust arcs and the target dots pick the way Blender’s own gizmos do.
• Size: handles keep their size on screen at every zoom. They follow the Theme’s Dot Radius and Blender’s Gizmo Size preference.
• Floated handles: a handle that sets a distance (a blend, a rounding, a thickness, an array smooth) sits a few dot widths off the part, even at zero. Moving it farther out raises the value by the distance moved.
• Click or drag: a press that hardly moves is a click. The Bisect arrow, the Array’s axis and type buttons, and the Bend and Twist axis buttons use the click.
• The value: while you drag, the value shows in the viewport header and in a small label halfway between the handle’s anchor and the cursor: the name, the number, then notes such as Snap 0.1. The Bisect arrow and fence points and the Lattice cage show no value.
• Keys: Shift slows the drag for precision, Ctrl snaps (0.1, or 15° for an angle), Ctrl + Shift snaps finer. Each handle’s own keys are on its page and in the status bar.
• Confirm and cancel: release the mouse, or press Space or Enter. RMB or Esc puts the value back. Each drag is one undo step.
• During a drag the other modifier handles and the arcs hide. Shape handles, cutter outlines, the Block axes and the Tape tree stay up.

Colours

The cutter outlines and target dots take the Modifier Dots colours of the Theme.

Cutter outlines

A shape that cuts, joins or embosses another one stops rendering on its own. Chisel draws its outline instead, in the colour of the modifier that uses it:

A cutter used by several modifiers takes the colour of the first one. A Carve target keeps rendering, so it has no outline. A hidden cutter (H, Veil, a hidden collection) has none either.

The outline is faint while the cutter is not selected, and bold once it is. Whatever is in front of it hides it, the body it cuts included: a cutter buried in a shape shows only where it comes out. A Union cutter’s outline lies on the joined surface, so it can look broken or dotted. Outlines stay up while you drag, and follow a cutter you move.

Click the shape where its outline is to select the cutter; Shift-click adds it to the selection. The outline itself does not react to the cursor.

Cutter Wires sets the style:

• Outline (default): only the silhouette as seen from the view, like Blender’s selection outline
• Wire: every edge of a simple wire of the shape, the far side included. The wire is the plain primitive, without its rounding or its own modifiers

Target dots

Target dots mark the origin of every Boolean, Emboss, Engrave and Carve target, coloured like the outlines (a Carve target’s dot is azure). Dots sets which:

• Active: the active shape’s targets, while it is also selected
• Selected: every selected shape’s targets
• Off (default)

Hidden Objects (on by default) keeps a dot on targets that are hidden. Click a dot to select its target alone; a hidden target is shown again.

Adjust arcs

The adjust arcs are one cluster of coloured arcs around the selection, at Blender’s transform pivot. Each arc drags one value of everything selected:

Drag an arc outward to raise its value. Each arc has its own checkbox under Adjust Arcs in the drop-down; the Carve offset arc has none.

See also

• Render Engine: Gizmos: every switch and gate
• Rounding and Blending: the same drag keys
• Edit: selecting and moving points
• Preferences: the colours and the dot size