CGTalk - nCloth Initial State doesn't change input mesh

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destruct007

01-14-2010, 12:37 AM

Maya docs says
"In the nDynamics menu set, select nSolver > Initial State > Set From Current."
"Setting the Initial State of your nCloth changes the shape of its input mesh."
"You can set the Input Mesh Attract attribute in the Dynamic Properties section of the nClothShape node to increase or decrease how much your nCloth wants to retain the shape of its input mesh."

Example
create sphere, raise up
make nCloth
turn on ground plane
sim
nSolver > Initial State > Set From Current
rewind, yes initial state worked
nMesh > Display Input Mesh

and it's the original sphere shape not the flattened cloth sphere.

Not that anyone cares I suppose but it makes it so that you can't use the Input Mesh Attract attribute to the inital shape.

Duncan

01-14-2010, 01:14 AM

The doc is wrong there (I'll inform our doc person). By design the input mesh as used for inputMeshAttract does not change when setting the initialState because a common use for the initial state is to relax everything until it is in equilibrium. If one runs a few frames until the inputAttract force balances out gravity and the cloth stops falling then sets intial state and rewinds the cloth should no longer fall at the start. If, however, the inputAttract shape was modified to be the start shape the cloth would still continue to fall for a bit.

At any rate if you want to attract to a particular simulated frame of the cloth you can instead duplicate the output cloth mesh at the desired frame(cntr-d) then create an "attract to matching mesh" constraint instead of using inputAttract.

Duncan

destruct007

01-14-2010, 10:07 PM

Thanks for the clarification Duncan! You are a wealth of insight, I'm glad you share it :D

Thanks again!

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