Blending
A blend is the fillet where two things meet: a join’s seam, a Bisect cut, a Mirror seam, the joins of Array copies. It is set on the modifier, and on most modifiers it uses one of the five profiles.
Where blends live
| Modifier | Settings | Radius | Profile | In the viewport |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boolean | Blend, Profile, Outer, Smooth, Material Blend | 0 and up (soft max 2) | yes | Ctrl + B, the blue arc, on a selected cutter |
| Carve | Blend, Profile, Outer, Smooth | 0 and up (soft max 2) | yes | Ctrl + B, the blue arc, on a selected carve target |
| Emboss & Engrave | Profile, Outer, Smooth; Inner Profile, Inner, Inner Smooth | 0 and up (soft max 2) | yes, per edge | Ctrl + B (Outer), the yellow or violet arcs, on a selected stamp |
| Bisect | Blend, Profile, Outer, Smooth; per polyline corner Corner Blend, Profile, Smooth | 0 and up (soft max 2) | yes | the orange blend dot and corner dots |
| Mirror | Blend | 0 and up (soft max 0.5) | Round only | none |
| Array | Smooth | 0 and up (soft max 0.5) | Round only | the orange smooth dot |
| Smooth | Radius, Profile, Smooth, Override All | 0 and up (soft max 2), default 0.02 | yes | none |
With the host active, each of these modifiers has a row in the pie’s East wedge. Clicking the blend value on a row drags the blend of that one modifier.
Blend checkbox
A Boolean, Carve or Bisect only blends while its Blend box is ticked; the Profile, Outer and Smooth rows appear when it is. Dragging the radius above 0 ticks the box automatically. An Emboss or Engrave has no Blend box: its Outer and Inner radii always apply.
Adjust modal (Ctrl + B)
With the Chisel tool active, Ctrl + B changes the blend of every modifier that uses a selected shape: the Booleans and Carves whose target it is, and the Outer edge of the Emboss and Engrave modifiers it stamps. Select the cutter, carve target or stamp; with only a host selected, Ctrl + B does nothing. Moving the mouse away from the active shape widens the blend. The current value is shown next to the cursor.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
Shift (held) | Precision: a tenth of the speed |
Ctrl (held) | Snap to 0.1; with Shift, to 0.01 |
1 – 5 | Profile: Round, Sharp, Soft, Tight, Chamfer (numpad too) |
S | On a Chamfer: drag its Smooth instead; S again goes back |
Click, Enter, Space | Confirm |
Esc, right-click | Cancel |
Dragging the blue Blend arc, at the bottom right of the selection, does the same.
Material Blend
A Boolean’s Material Blend sets how wide the colour change across its seam is, without changing the shape. At 1 the colour change follows the fillet, higher values spread it wider, and 0 gives a sharp colour line. A material’s own Blend setting (Matcap Shader) can also widen it; the wider of the two is used.
Smooth modifier
A Smooth modifier gives every seam, rounding and bevel of its shape at least its Radius. Anything with a smaller radius is raised to it and takes the Smooth’s Profile; anything larger keeps its own radius and profile. With Override All on, every one of them takes the Smooth’s radius and profile. Mirror seams and Array joins take only the radius and stay round.
Limits and known issues
Cancelling keeps the profile
Escrestores the radii, but a profile picked with1–5during the drag stays. Confirm and pressCtrl + Zto undo all of it.