Collision Margin (New for 6)

In the Solver Frequency section, you read that the Solver Frequency determines various animation details of a soft body. Most of these calculations are done when the collision happens. The collision margin settings help to determine the reaction of various soft bodies when they collide with other physics-enabled objects.

Soft vs. Rigid Collision & Self Collision

These settings must be enabled if you want a specific soft cloth to interact with other rigid bodies or with itself. Otherwise the soft cloth will penetrate all rigid bodies or its own mesh when it is animating.

When these settings are on, more system resources will be consumed; therefore, disable them when soft clothes are isolated from all other rigid bodies.

Soft vs. Rigid Collision = Off

The soft cloth goes through the rigid body

Soft vs. Rigid Collision = On

Self Collision = Off

The soft cloth goes through itself

Self Collision = On

Collision Margin

Collision Margin is the reaction range from the surface of a soft cloth during collision. The higher the value, the farther away from other objects the collision will take place. This is useful especially when the sharp edges of the target object (mostly rigid bodies) go through the soft cloth.

Collision Margin = 10

The edges of the rigid body penetrate the soft cloth.

Collision Margin = 20

The soft cloth moves slightly away from the surface of the rigid body.

If the Collision Margin is set too high, then the collision simulation will take place to far away from the target object, causing unnatural results.

Collision Margin = 99

The soft cloth is too far away from the rigid body.