---
title: Mesh
order: 4
---

A Mesh shape is a Blender mesh object baked into a Chisel shape: Chisel samples the mesh once into a grid of distances, and from then on it takes joins, blends, modifiers and materials like every other shape. The object keeps its mesh, which stays its display mesh.

![a mesh converted to a Mesh shape](../assets/sdf-mesh-convert.webp)

**Convert Mesh to SDF** (in *Object Properties ▸ SDF* of a plain mesh, or right-click ▸ **Convert to SDF**) makes one, see [Convert to SDF](../operations.md#convert-to-sdf). The bake reads the mesh with its Blender modifiers applied; the inside and the outside come from the faces' orientation.

## Settings

![the SDF panel of a Mesh shape](../assets/sdf-panel-mesh.webp)

| Setting | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| *"SDF is stale"* | | | A red line: the mesh was edited after the bake, and the shape still shows it as it was |
| **Rebake SDF** | | | Bakes the grid again from the mesh as it is now |
| **Bake Resolution** | `128` | 8 – 1024 | Grid cells along the mesh's longest side, for the next bake. Above about `256` a grid costs gigabytes of GPU memory |
| **Field Margin** | `8` | 6 – 64 | The shell of exact distances around the surface, in grid cells, for the next bake. Emboss depths, blend widths and carve offsets against the mesh must fit inside it |

The rows every shape has are in [Properties Panels](../interface/panels.md#rows-every-shape-has); **Rebuild Mesh** leaves a Mesh shape's mesh alone.

### When a grid does not fit

A grid the GPU cannot hold (a file from a bigger card, a smaller budget, a grid still baking) is drawn as a box of its bounds. The panel then shows **Shown as placeholder** with the reason and a **Rebake to fit** button, which lowers **Bake Resolution** to the largest this GPU can hold and bakes again. A shape whose resolution has become too large shows an *over budget* line under **Bake Resolution**.

## With other shapes

![a Mesh shape joined to a Box with a blend](../assets/sdf-mesh-boolean.webp)

A join and its blend work the same between a Mesh shape and any other shape.

Baked grids are saved in the `.blend` by default (**Store SDF Bakes in File**), so the file reopens without baking them again; see [Mesh-SDF storage](../render-engine/display.md#mesh-sdf-storage). A grid that is not stored bakes again in the background when the file opens.

## Limits and known issues

> [!warning]
> Right after **Convert Mesh to SDF** the panel already says *"SDF is stale"*, although the mesh has not changed and the shape is correct. Press **Rebake SDF** once to clear it.

A Mesh shape is not in the `[` / `]` cycle and no shape switches into it.

## See also

- [Convert to SDF](../operations.md#convert-to-sdf)
- [Convert to Mesh](../operations.md#convert-to-mesh): a shape to polygons
- [Apply Modifiers](../operations.md#apply-modifiers): a whole stack baked into one Mesh shape