nCaching fluids

You can speed-up the playback of your fluid effect by creating a fluids nCache. A fluids nCache file stores the resulting data from a solved fluid simulation. When you playback a cached fluid, Maya no longer has to take the time to solve the fluid simulation. Instead, Maya reads in the data contained in the specified fluids nCache file and plays the fluid effect rather than re-calculating the fluid simulation. nCaching your fluid effect has the following benefits:

You can play the simulation more quickly and scrub back and forth through the fluid effect’s animation using the Time Slider
You can re-use caches so that you do not have to solve at render time
Improve control and the direct behavior of a fluid effect by arranging, merging, and blending its nCache clips.

You can create fluid nCaches for your effects from the Fluid nCache menu, and edit them from the Attribute Editor or the Trax Editor. For information about working with fluid nCaches in the Trax Editor, see Work with nCache clips.

Note Fluid caches created using Maya 2008 (or earlier versions), which use cache_fluidShape nodes, can be played back in Maya. cache_fluidShape nodes are still used to set the initial state of a fluid, but they can no longer be used in Maya to create a playable fluid caches. See cacheFile.