The point-cache feature of the Maya^® Muscle deformer lets you cache all point information that occurs up to the deformation stage. This provides faster feedback after the main deformation and animation is complete. For example, you can use this feature for faster timeline scrubbing when doing lighting or rendering.

Like the Jiggle and Relax deformation features, caching is an independent feature of the deformer. This means it can be used even if you are not doing skinning or any other calculation with the deformer, but can be applied on top of other deformers to write out and read cache data for your object.

When caching is disabled or set to write-node mode, the main deformer calculates with whatever settings are active. When caching is in read-node mode, main calculations are disabled and a simple point-cache is performed.

For file cache, you can set the location where the files are stored using the Attribute Editor, or by selecting Muscle > Caching > Set Location of Cache File from the main menu.

If you set Cache to write-file, each frame outputs one ASCII text file with information on the points for the mesh based on the location and filename you specify. If you are using node-based caching, the Cache Path has no effect.