Cloth Property Editor

| General | Presets

To display: Select an object with the Cloth operator already applied to it and click the Cloth tab in the ClothOp property editor.

For more information on cloth in general, see Cloth [ Simulation and Effects].

General

Name	Defines the name of the cloth property associated with the model.
Nail	Only available if you select a cluster on the cloth object and choose Create Cloth Local Cloth Cluster from the Simulate toolbar. This option toggles the cluster's involvement in the cloth deformation: if selected, the clusters stay rigid and follow the model animation. Animate this parameter to obtain the effect of nailing and releasing clusters over the duration of the simulation. Note If you use a weight map on the Nail option (click on its connection icon), the results will not be a gradual falloff of the weight map values because the Nail option is an on/off option. This means that 100% of the weight map will be in effect where the weight map value is 50% or more, and 0% where the weight map value is less than 50%. See Using Clusters for Localized Effects [ Simulation and Effects].
Local	Only available if you select a cluster on the cloth object and choose Create Cloth Local Cloth Cluster. This option activates local physical properties of the cluster for the cloth. When off, the clusters use the global cloth properties.
Mass	Defines the total mass of the cloth. The mass of each vertex of the model is given by that value divided for the number of vertices.
Friction	Defines the friction of the cloth against itself and obstacles. If you want a rotating object to transfer its movement to the cloth, for example, increase this value.

Stiffness Parameters

To help reduce that stretchy, "rubbery" look when a cloth drapes over an obstacle, use high values for all the Stiffness parameters. Low values (no resistance) allow the cloth to deform without resistance.

For more information, see Controlling the Stretch with Spring Nets [ Simulation and Effects].

Shear Resistance

Controls the resistance to shearing, meaning crosswise stretching, keeping as much to the original shape as possible.

For high values, a Cloth's quad remains undeformed in the simulation and the angle between two adjacent edges of the quad is near to the initial equilibrium value.

For a reasonable value, make it equal to or less than the Stretch Resistance value. Try to decrease this value if the cloth's wrinkling is too rigid.

For polygon mesh objects, the polygons are not always quad, so the shear net is not defined. To solve this, triangulate the polygon by selecting Triangulate Polygons (below). The edges coming from the triangulation are then used as the shear net.


Shear Resistance value of 1 on Silk cloth preset.	Shear Resistance value of 100 on Silk cloth preset.

Bend Resistance

Controls the resistance to bending. With low values, the cloth moves very freely like silk; with high values, the cloth appears like rigid linen or even leather. For a reasonable value, make it less than the Shear and Stretch Resistance values.


Bend Resistance value of 1 on Silk cloth preset.	Bend Resistance value of 300 on Silk cloth preset.

Stretch Resistance

Defines the resistance to stretching as it controls the elasticity of the material. Low values allow the cloth to deform without resistance, while higher values prevent the cloth from having elasticity.


Stretch Resistance value of 1 on Silk cloth preset.	Stretch Resistance value of 500 on Silk cloth preset.

Initial Tension %

Gives an initial tension to the cloth by stretching or compressing the springs used to simulate the fabric. This is useful for shrinking large garments on an obstacle body in a few "pre-roll" frames.

This parameter lets the cloth act like rubber or elastic under stress. Upon release it tries to snap to a non-stretched state which is n percentage smaller as defined by this parameter.

A value of 100 means the tension is as given by 100% stretching of the cloth object rest size (that is, the rest size is half the size of the initial cloth object).

You can also use negative values: for example, a value of -100 means that the tension is as given by a compression to half the cloth object rest size (that is, the rest size is a 100% stretching of the initial cloth object size).

Stretch Limit

Defines the ratio of spring deformation allowed from one step to the other. A high value makes the cloth bouncier than lower values. Since numerical divergence may occur, the solver automatically increases the Iterations Per Frame (precision) value when it is needed, depending on the value you set for it.

Stretch Limit is a key factor in stabilizing the cloth simulation. Increase its value if the simulation stops running, or decrease it if there seems to be instability during the simulation and play again. Values between 1 and 2.5 will probably give the best results.

Triangulate Polygons

Creates shear springs for polygon models. By default, polygon cloth models do not contain shear springs. This prevents polygons from collapsing during the deformation.

Presets

Displays a number of cloth presets that you can apply to a cloth object to simulate such materials as silk, dough, or plastic.

To use the presets:

Select an object with cloth already applied.
Open the Cloth property page and click one of the buttons on the Presets page.
Calculate the simulation by clicking the Play button in the playback controls.

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