Purpose

Deform turns input vertices into a constraint network for flexible meshes, wires and lattice structures. Distance constraints resist stretching, volume constraints hold tetrahedral volume, and bend constraints use surface topology. Constraint rules let you pin or weight regions of the object.

Use

Place Deform in the Geometry view, under Solvers. Connect your geometry and keep Source on Input Geometry. Mesh topology supplies edges and, where available, bend relationships. With a raw point set, Link Radius and Max Links / Point control the proximity connections.

To learn the response without input, choose Param Lattice. Start with the default 6 by 6 by 6 lattice, Cell Size at 0.1 and Pin Top Band enabled. Adjust gravity or compliance while watching the pinned structure stretch.

Inputs and outputs

The geometry input supplies the object to deform. Resources > Connections accepts two SDF inputs, sdf and sdf2, and a velocity field.

Outputs carry P, v, id and Cd. When the input supplies surface triangles, the primary point output retains that topology over the deformed vertices. A raw point input does not acquire a polygon surface automatically.

Controls

• Simulate pauses advancement and Reset restores the starting object. Auto-Rebuild or the Rebuild pulse applies structural edits to the constraint network.
• Link Radius at 0 uses automatic spacing. Max Links / Point caps proximity links. Too small a radius can leave a raw point set disconnected.
• Distance, Volume and Bend Family enable the available constraint types. A larger compliance makes that family softer. Start with two Substeps, four Iterations and Gauss-Seidel; Averaged Jacobi gives a softer solve.
• Constraint Rule Stack includes pin, stiffen, soften and family rules. Use attribute maps to weight regions. Pin and mass changes rebuild the structure; distance, volume and bend rule weights can retune compliance live.
• Floor Enabled, Contact Radius, Friction and Restitution control external contacts. Self Collision starts off and has separate radius, stiffness and neighbor limits.
• Velocity Field Coupling starts at 0. Raise it after connecting a velocity resource.

Notes

Bend needs surface relationships, and volume needs tetrahedra or the generated lattice. Enabling a family cannot supply missing topology.

Use the Resources Status to distinguish a pending rebuild from a live parameter change. Start with a small mesh before raising Max Points, link counts or self-collision neighbors.

Ports

Inputs

• geometry points
• sdf sdf collider
• sdf2 sdf collider
• velocity velocity field

Outputs

• P points
• v points
• id points
• Cd points

Parameters

Deform

Auto-Rebuild on Build Params (Autorebuild) Toggle op('deform').par.Autorebuild

Default:

On

Options:

Off, On

Rebuild (Rebuildnow) Pulse op('deform').par.Rebuildnow

Default:

None

Simulate (Simulate) Toggle op('deform').par.Simulate

Default:

On

Options:

Off, On

Reset (Resetsolver) Pulse op('deform').par.Resetsolver

Default:

None

Source

Source Geometry (Hdrsource) Str op('deform').par.Hdrsource

Read only.

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Source (Source) Menu op('deform').par.Source

Default:

0

Options:

Input Geometry (deform the wire), Param Lattice (no-input demo)

Link Radius (0 = auto) (Linkradius) Float op('deform').par.Linkradius

Default:

0

Range:

0 to 100

Max Links / Point (Maxlinks) Int op('deform').par.Maxlinks

Default:

12

Range:

2 to 32

Lattice Res X (Resx) Int op('deform').par.Resx

Default:

6

Range:

1 to 40

Lattice Res Y (Resy) Int op('deform').par.Resy

Default:

6

Range:

1 to 40

Lattice Res Z (Resz) Int op('deform').par.Resz

Default:

6

Range:

1 to 40

Lattice Cell Size (Cellsize) Float op('deform').par.Cellsize

Default:

0.1

Range:

0.0001 to 2

Pin Top Band (lattice) (Pintop) Toggle op('deform').par.Pintop

Default:

On

Options:

Off, On

Distance Family (Distance) Toggle op('deform').par.Distance

Default:

On

Options:

Off, On

Volume Family (lattice) (Volume) Toggle op('deform').par.Volume

Default:

On

Options:

Off, On

Max Points (capacity) (Maxpoints) Int op('deform').par.Maxpoints

Default:

40000

Range:

256 to 4000000

Solver

Solve (Hdrsolver) Str op('deform').par.Hdrsolver

Read only.

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Dt (Dt) Float op('deform').par.Dt

Default:

0.0166667

Range:

0.0001 to 0.5

Substeps (Substeps) Int op('deform').par.Substeps

Default:

2

Range:

1 to 64

Iterations (Iterations) Int op('deform').par.Iterations

Default:

4

Range:

1 to 128

Scheduler (Scheduler) Menu op('deform').par.Scheduler

Default:

0

Options:

Gauss-Seidel (AVBD, few iters), Averaged Jacobi (softer)

Distance Compliance (Compliancedist) Float op('deform').par.Compliancedist

Default:

0.0003

Range:

0 to 0.1

Volume Compliance (Compliancevol) Float op('deform').par.Compliancevol

Default:

1e-8

Range:

0 to 0.1

Bend Family (mesh) (Bend) Toggle op('deform').par.Bend

Default:

Off

Options:

Off, On

Bend Compliance (Compliancebend) Float op('deform').par.Compliancebend

Default:

0.00001

Range:

0 to 0.1

Damping (Damping) Float op('deform').par.Damping

Default:

0.99

Range:

0 to 1

Max Velocity (Maxvelocity) Float op('deform').par.Maxvelocity

Default:

20

Range:

0.1 to 1000

Gravity (Gravityx) Float op('deform').par.Gravityx

Default:

0

Gravity Y (Gravityy) Float op('deform').par.Gravityy

Default:

-9.81

Gravity Z (Gravityz) Float op('deform').par.Gravityz

Default:

0

Velocity Field Coupling (vel:) (Windcoupling) Float op('deform').par.Windcoupling

Default:

0

Range:

0 to 1000

Contact

Contact (Hdrcontact) Str op('deform').par.Hdrcontact

Read only.

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Floor Enabled (Floorenabled) Toggle op('deform').par.Floorenabled

Default:

On

Options:

Off, On

Floor Y (Floory) Float op('deform').par.Floory

Default:

-1

Range:

-100 to 100

Contact Radius (Contactradius) Float op('deform').par.Contactradius

Default:

0.02

Range:

0 to 1

Self Collision (Selfcollision) Toggle op('deform').par.Selfcollision

Default:

Off

Options:

Off, On

Self Radius (Selfradius) Float op('deform').par.Selfradius

Default:

0.01

Range:

0 to 1

Self Stiffness (Selfstiffness) Float op('deform').par.Selfstiffness

Default:

0.8

Range:

0 to 1

Self Max Neighbors (Selfmaxneighbors) Int op('deform').par.Selfmaxneighbors

Default:

64

Range:

1 to 512

Restitution (Restitution) Float op('deform').par.Restitution

Default:

0.1

Range:

0 to 1

Friction (Friction) Float op('deform').par.Friction

Default:

0.9

Range:

0 to 1

Colour

Colour (Hdrcolor) Str op('deform').par.Hdrcolor

Read only.

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Colour Max Speed (Maxspeedcolor) Float op('deform').par.Maxspeedcolor

Default:

5

Range:

0.01 to 100

Rules

Constraint Rules (Hdrrules) Str op('deform').par.Hdrrules

Read only.

Default:

"" (Empty String)

Constraint Rule Stack (Deformrules) Str op('deform').par.Deformrules

Default:

"" (Empty String)