Unfortunately I dont think there is a specific setting that will help you, it would be great if there were a maintain inner volume option or something.  That would be useful for things like this, or pillows and the like.

You could however adjust the material settinhs to make the beans less prone to collapsing, though I don't think that they will stay completely rigid.

One option might help, though it is a little lateral :).  If you add a cloth plane under the top layer of beans, so it is part of the dynamic cloth item, then when you clothify it, add the beans to the hard decorated group.  Set the cloth sim to collide with the ground and the lower beans.

When the sim runs the cloth part will fall and deform over the lower beans, but the upper beans will maintain shape and stay over the cloth part.  Make the cloth invisiblel in the material settings and you should get something of a decent effect.

Once it is run you may need to adjust the y position of the simulated cloth, probably down a little to account for collision offset.

Hope that works

John :)

"then when you clothify it, add the beans to the hard decorated group."
I'm not sure how to do this, I've never done that before.

ok you need one model file with the beans and a cloth plane

make the beans one material zone and the cloth another

Import it and go to the cloth room

Set up the simulation as normal, then click on the hard decorated group button and click the add material option and select the bean material.  Close that window and then continue the simulation procedure as normal :)

Hope that helps

John.

Sorry for the igornerance but where is the hard group button?

Quote - "click on the hard decorated group button and click the add material option and select the bean material."

Sorry for the igornerance but where is the hard group button?

The button has "Rigid" instead of "Hard".

If you still have a version of the OBJ with each bean as a separate item or group, it would probably be easier to just move them individually in the modeler.   I've run into this problem with food, and found it easier to just grab each piece and move and rotate until it looks right. 

I doubt that you'll get good results from the cloth room no matter how you adjust it.

Quote - If you still have a version of the OBJ with each bean as a separate item or group, it would probably be easier to just move them individually in the modeler.   I've run into this problem with food, and found it easier to just grab each piece and move and rotate until it looks right. 

I doubt that you'll get good results from the cloth room no matter how you adjust it.

I usually end up doing that or a compination of things.

Quote - In The cloth Room I am trying to drop the top lima beans onto the lower beans and the cloth plane.But as you see the top beans collapse which I don't want.
  What settings should I change to have them stop doing this? Thank you for any help.

You might want to try a much higher 'Fold Resistance' setting, like e.g. 50 instead of the default 5. That prevents the beans from deforming that much. I would then also use a higher setting for the various damping and friction settings, otherwise the beans tend to get a bit jumpy.

Quote - > Quote - In The cloth Room I am trying to drop the top lima beans onto the lower beans and the cloth plane.But as you see the top beans collapse which I don't want.

  What settings should I change to have them stop doing this? Thank you for any help.

You might want to try a much higher 'Fold Resistance' setting, like e.g. 50 instead of the default 5. That prevents the beans from deforming that much. I would then also use a higher setting for the various damping and friction settings, otherwise the beans tend to get a bit jumpy.

I cranked it all the way up and it worked great! Thanks