Mute

Disables the effect of the cloth simulator. By muting the Cloth operator, the cloth model goes back to its undeformed initial position. Temporarily mute it if you want to freely move the playback cursor on the timeline (such as for inserting keyframes) without running the simulation.

Start Frame

First frame of the cloth simulation.

End Frame

Last frame of the cloth simulation.

Copy from Scene

Copies the start and end frame values from the scene’s timeline to the Start Frame and Duration.

Copy to Scene

Copies the values you set for the Start Frame and Duration to the scene’s start and end frame values on the timeline.

Iterations Per Frame

The number of iterations executed by the calculation cycle between one frame and the other. Values higher then 1 result in a more precise simulation. If the cloth seems to have artifacts, increase its value and play the simulation again.

Time Warp

Defines a scaling factor for the dynamic of the simulation. Increasing this value slows down the cloth dynamic but doesn’t change the obstacle dynamic.

Save Simulation

When you save the scene, this option calculates the simulation as much as is cached on disk. This information is retrieved when you load the scene again. The cache is optimized to store as little data as possible. If you don’t select this option, the computation is executed again when you load the scene.

Write Cache

Saves the simulation in a cache file (it is a sequence similar to .ptp files used for particles).

Restart From File

Reloads the simulation from the file that was saved. Computation starts from the specified frame onward; for all previous frames, the old simulation is displayed.

Clean Cached Files

Cleans saved cache files.

Restart File Name

Cache file name.

Start Frame

Defines the frame from which you want collision detection to be performed.

Active

Detects cloth collisions with obstacles, and the correct response is calculated. If this option is not selected, obstacles are ignored.

Accurate

If some cloth’s vertices penetrate obstacles, select this option: vertices going through obstacles are automatically pushed out.

Keep Edge Length

Prevents edges from being stretched when obstacles tend to separate its extremes. This is especially useful when, for example, a dress relaxes too much around the neck of your character.

Active

Detects collisions of the cloth with itself. It prevents parts of the cloth intersecting with other parts, such as when a cloth folds up on itself. The option activates detection and response collision by checking polygon vs. vertex pairs.

Accurate

Detects collisions of the cloth with itself by also checking edge vs. edge pairs.

Cloth Thickness

Defines the minimum distance at which the polygons or quad of the cloth patch can approach each other. It corresponds to the thickness of the fabric.

Active

When the cloth object is made of multiple NURBS patches, this option lets you stitch them together by overlapping their closest vertices. It is useful to pin different patches along their borders for tailoring complete garments. Once pairs of vertices are stitched together, they are kept together for the whole simulation.

Threshold

The minimum distance between pairs of vertices in order to stitch them together. You can fine-tune this interactively.

Viscosity

Defines the viscosity of the medium in which the cloth moves.

Noise

Adds noise (randomness) to the viscosity.

Fan Force Coeff

If you have created a fan force control object (see Fan [ Simulation Basics ]), you can set its value here on how it affects the cloth. You must use any value greater than 0 (zero) for these parameters for the appropriate force to have an effect. The settings you use here represent a percentage of the “global” effect that the force has; that is, you can’t go beyond the settings that the force had when you created it.

Eddy Force Coeff

If you have created an eddy force control object (see Eddy (Vacuum) [ Simulation Basics ], you can set its value here on how it affects the cloth. You must use any value greater than 0 (zero) for these parameters for the appropriate force to have an effect. The settings you use here represent a percentage of the “global” effect that the force has; that is, you can’t go beyond the settings that the force had when you created it.