Hi again, all,

This is related to a previous post I made about dynamic cloth. I am still learning the ropes here and thank you for your patience. I just wanted to get your advice about one scenario:

I load up a scene, Vic 4.2, and a cloth. I start new simulation, and in the first run, set collide parts to the entire Vic figure (I know this might not be advisable, but I wasn't sure about all the body parts I should set the collisions to, as the cloth is large). I run Calculate Simulation and for the first few poses the drapery works great.

However, I do another pose, which is not radically different from the previous ones, and the drapery is totally messed up. I try zeroing the figure, starting a new simulation, and I get the same result. I delete the drapery, zero the figure again, start a new simulation, set the collision parts to the ones I think are pertinent, same result. I do the whole operation again with the full Vic body parts colliding, exactly same result. I close Poser (7 in this case), and restart, same results again.

Any idea what is happening?

Thanks!

Check that in the first frame, NONE of the cloth is touching V4.2

most of these explosions you describe come from the cloth touching the figure in frame 1.
The cloth must be around the figure, not touching, and certanilly not intersecting.
leave figure at zero pose for a few frames, and only then start the move towards a pose.

Generally I load a figure at 90-95% size.
Load the cloth
Put the cloth around the figure but not touching.
Make fram 10 a keyframe and let your figure "grow" in neutral pose to 100%. lET THE GROWING FIGURE PUSH THE CLOTH AROUND IT TO FIT;

Make frame 30 a keyframe and put your pose in frame 30.

Brief explanation  hope I did not miss something.
EXPERIMENT and read all posts for dynamic clothing. Some real good tips there.

Since you're not posting an image of the pose, I have to guess. Mostly the dynamics go wrong when there is no room for it. If your clothe has sleeves and the arms are moved close to the body, the mesh may overlap. The simulation desperately tries the fabric to a point where it's no longer inside of the mesh, which usually leads to massive distortions.

Make sure that there is enough room for the simulation. If you don't think that this helps, I would suggest you post an image of the pose so that we can see what's happening.

Thanks for the tips...I'll try to work with stopping at certain frames and doing the mods you speak of...

I just was wondering if you had any wisdom to give regarding collision points. Is it basically intuitive, i.e. you kind of guess where the cloth will be touching the figure, or is it ok just to click all of Vic's points?

Which cloth this is makes a difference. If it is not cloth designed to be simmed or at least, cloth that has been checked for simming capability, you will find all sorts of things going pear-shaped. One errant vertex can suddenly decide it's had enough of this scene and head off for Cleveland. Any ornamental mesh can cause the sim to slow to a crawl. Double-sided (or even curved-on-itself/intersecting) mesh will exhibit very unexpected, bizarre behaviour.