Cloth Sim

Simulate cloth, ropes, cables, hair strands, and elastic curves with collision.

What it does

Configures a physics solver for soft, deformable geometry. The incoming shape decides which kind of soft body it becomes: a mesh becomes cloth (stretch and bend constraints), an open polyline or curve becomes a rope, cable or hair strand (a chain of springs, pinned at the root), and a filled 2D shape becomes a membrane or an inflatable balloon. Mixed geometry is accepted, and each piece gets the constraints that suit its shape.

This node only configures. Settings are stamped onto the geometry, which passes through unchanged. The simulation runs inside the Physics World node the geometry is wired into.

When to use it

ParameterTypeDefault
inputOneOf([CollectionOf(Geometry), CollectionOf(Crc)])
pin_groupString""
iterationsNumber10
stretch_complianceNumber0
bend_complianceNumber0.001
stiffness_falloffNumber0
dampingNumber0.010
self_collisionBooleanfalse
self_collision_thicknessNumber0.020
enable_pressureBooleanfalse
pressureNumber1
balloonBooleanfalse
enable_breakingBooleanfalse
break_thresholdNumber2
strengthNumber1

Gotchas

Pinning auto-applies only to open strands, a rope or hair strand with a free end. Closed loops and meshes are not auto-pinned and fall freely unless a pin group is assigned.

Bend compliance and stiffness falloff affect rope, cable and hair (curve) topology only. They have no effect on mesh cloth or filled shapes.

Pressure inflates a closed, watertight surface only. On a shape with gaps or an open boundary, enabling pressure does nothing useful.

Balloon changes behaviour for a filled 2D shape only: off gives a membrane (holds its shape like jelly), on gives a floppy balloon (only the enclosed area is preserved). It has no effect on open strokes or ropes.

Worked example

  1. Draw or import geometry: a plane for cloth, an open curve for a rope, or a filled shape for a membrane or balloon.

  2. Add a Cloth Sim and wire the geometry into it. Leave Pin Group empty to let an open strand's root auto-pin, or assign a point group for custom pins.

  3. Wire the Cloth Sim output into a Physics World node's cloth input, which runs the simulation.

  4. Raise Iterations for a stiffer result, or raise Stretch/Bend Compliance to loosen it up.

  5. For a filled shape, toggle Balloon on and enable Pressure to inflate it.

See also

Physics World · Soft Body Sim · Rigid Body Sim · Geometry (meshes)