---
title: Path Shapes
order: 2
---

Tube, Outline, Rail and Lathe are made of points kept on the shape itself, with no Blender curve object behind them. The points show and are edited in the Chisel tool's [Edit mode](../../interface/edit-mode.md). They replace the Curve, Curve Tube and Curve Revolve shapes of Chisel 4.x.

![the four path shapes and a Text](../../assets/path-shapes.webp)

| Shape | What it makes | Points live | Path | Fewest points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Tube](tube.md) | A round tube through the points, thicker or thinner at each one | Anywhere in 3D | Open or a loop | 2 |
| [Outline](outline.md) | A closed outline, extruded by **Depth** | On the local XY plane | Always a loop | 3 |
| [Rail](rail.md) | A star, polygon, gear, flower, ratchet or drawn section swept along the points | Anywhere in 3D | Open or a loop | 2 |
| [Lathe](lathe.md) | A profile turned round the local Z axis, solid or hollow | On the local XZ plane, right of the axis | Solid: open; Hollow: a loop | 3 |

Every point is **Smooth**, **Corner** or **Free**; a Corner rounds with the same five profiles an Ngon corner has. The point rows of the panel, the handles and their keys are on [Points](points.md).

Path shapes are added from the Add menu, the `Q` pie's shape grid and right-click ▸ **Primitives**, at the 3D cursor; they are not in the tool's *Create* mode. [From Curve](from-curve.md) makes one from a Blender curve.

## Changing the type

The **Type** menu in the SDF panel switches between the four path shapes and keeps the points: a Tube turned into a Rail keeps its path; one turned into an Outline or a Lathe has its points put onto that shape's plane. A shape with too few points for the new type gets that type's default path. `[` / `]` skip the path shapes.

## Scale and origin

**Rebuild Mesh** bakes the object's scale into the points and Free handles and sets the scale back to `1`; **Rounding**, **Corner Smooth** and **Tube Radius** scale by the smallest axis. Moving the origin (*Set Origin*, *Affect Only Origins*) leaves the shape in place; a Lathe's origin moves only along its axis.

## Limits

- A Tube or Rail holds about 85 Smooth or Corner points (256 Free ones), an Outline or Lathe about 340. Past that, adding a point reports *"No room for another point"*.
- On a path of more than 32 points, the radius rings and rounding handles show only for the active point, its two neighbours and the last point the mouse was over.
- A view shows at most 100 point handles of the selected shapes, see [Edit Mode](../../interface/edit-mode.md#many-shapes-100-handles).

## See also

- [Points](points.md)
- [Edit Mode](../../interface/edit-mode.md)