Cloth Sim
Garment blockout → sim → art-direct → bake. Stable pins. Engine-friendly caches/shape keys.
When to Use
- Dresses, capes, coats, flags, banners
- Character clothing that needs drape
- Baking sim to shape keys or Alembic/USD caches
- Pre-roll settling before animation export
Workflow
Garment mesh (quad-friendly) → Vertex groups (pin/collide)
→ Cloth modifier settings → Collision objects
→ Pre-roll settle → Sim pass → Art-direct fixes
→ Bake shape keys / cache → Cleanup → Export
Mesh Prep
- Quads preferred; even density on deforming areas
- Avoid long skinny triangles on folds
- Apply scale before sim
- Separate garment from body collider
Vertex Groups
| Group |
Purpose |
PIN_Cloth |
Anchors (waist, shoulders, collar) |
COL_Ignore |
Optional non-colliding regions |
STIFF_High |
Belts, seams that should resist stretch |
Settings Starters
| Look |
Quality |
Speed |
Bending |
| Soft dress |
8–12 |
1.0 |
Low |
| Stiff coat |
5–8 |
1.0 |
Higher |
| Flag/cape |
8–10 |
1.0–1.5 |
Low–mid |
Tune mass and air viscosity for scale. Always run a settle pre-roll.
Bake Targets
| Target |
Use |
| Shape keys |
Game poses / few frames |
| Alembic/USD |
Cinematic caches |
| Armature weights |
If converting to deform-only |
Constraints
MUST DO
- Apply scale; define pin groups before long sims
- Collide against simplified body capsule/mesh
- Art-direct after sim (sculpt/corrective keys)
MUST NOT DO
- Write code or snippets for Blender versions before 5.2, or add version fallbacks: this plugin targets 5.2+, and legacy branches teach users APIs that no longer exist
- Sim hero cloth on ultra-dense sculpt meshes
- Skip pre-roll (starts mid-air / exploding)
- Export raw unstable caches
Scripts
Tested on Blender 5.2 LTS via the official Blender MCP. Run with execute_blender_code (or headless,
see the blender-mcp-workflow skill); read the script header for every argument.
When the user will paste code into Blender themselves, give them the short runpy call with the absolute
path of this installed script and their ARGS. Don't inline or rewrite the script: the tested file is the point.
| Script |
What it does |
scripts/cloth_setup.py |
Add a cloth simulation with a fabric preset, optional pin group, collision on listed colliders, and cache range. Re-running updates the existing modifier. |
import runpy
result = runpy.run_path("<skill_dir>/scripts/cloth_setup.py", init_globals={"ARGS": {...}})["result"]
ARGS: cloth, fabric, pin_group, colliders, frames, self_collision
Reference Guide
| Topic |
Reference |
Load When |
| Cloth Settings Presets |
references/cloth-settings-presets.md |
When needed |
| Pin And Collide |
references/pin-and-collide.md |
When needed |
| Bake Targets |
references/bake-targets.md |
When needed |
