Flow: Unified Physics - Preferences
The Flow Unified Physics plugin preferences/setup panel is shown below:
Add Item: Add an item to the simulation
Edit List: Allows you to choose which items are included in a simulation.
**Make New Set:**This allows you to make a new set of simulation items. You can have a simulation that acts on multiple sets.
Add Set: This allows you to add your sets to a simulation.
Mode: Allows you to either Preview or Bake the simulation. Prior to rendering, the simulation should be baked once you are satisfied with the results.
Time Steps: Allows you to define the subframe steps (i.e., the times that the simulation is calculated). This allows finer simulations at the expense of increased calculation time.
Simulation: Allows you to Run, Pause of Reset the simulation.
Substeps - The number of substeps (i.e. the frame rate is divided by the number of substeps to determine the number of simulation calculations done per frame) per frame where the simulation is calculation
Iterations - The number of iterations calculated for each substep.
Particle size - Sets the size of the LW Flow particles
Collision distance - Distance between particles for collision detection
Adhesion - How particles 'stick' to each other
Dynamic friction - When particles collide do they steal energy from each other
Relaxation mode - There are two options. Either Local which means the simulation is relaxed at a Local coordinate level, or Global which considers world coordinates. Choosing world coordinates will result in a longer relaxation time.
Relax Factor - The Relaxation factor is the time it takes for a particle to speed up from one velocity to another.
More simulation options - see below.
Body Type - The body type allows each object within the simulation to be set to the Body Type. Body types include:
None - If the Body Type is set to none, it will not be included in the simulation.
Kinematic - This simulation will include this is an object that the fluid interacts with.
Emitter - This allows an object/null to become an emitter of particles (fluids) within the simulation.
Particle -
Rigid -
Fluid Block -
Mass - Mass of the object used in the simulation.
Particle spacing
Force (X, Y, Z) - The Force vector scalar values (being a vector in the direction of Xi + Yj + Zk) applied to each particle. An example is gravity, which is applied as a -9.8 force in the negative Y direction.
Max speed (velocity) - The maximum speed of each particle in m/s.
Max acceleration - The maximum acceleration in m/s.
Fluid output folder - The output folder in your content directory where Fluid simulations are saved by LW Flow.
Fluid base name - The base name of the Fluid Mesh for the object sequence that will be generated.
Warn on Overwrite - LW Flow will warn you if you are going to overwrite a saved simulation.
Make per Scene Folder - LW Flow will create a new folder for each scene to store simulation results.
Fluid Remesh reduction - Sets the percentage reduction when LW Flow re-meshes an object sequence/fluid simulation in order to save space.
Remesh Fluid as... - LW Flow will re-mesh the fluid as triangles only, quads only, or predominantly quads
Auto Sequence playback - LW Flow will automatically play A sequence back every time the 'play' key is triggered in Layout.
Child Inheritance - Any child objects will inherit its parent's parameters.
Max. particle count - Sets the max particle count at one time. Ideally, this should be boosted if you find that there are gaps in your fluid where particles have reached the display limit.
Display Selected - If a LW Flow object is selected, then you can choose the color that it is highlighted
Display physics bodies - Allows you to highlight unselected LW objects that are of the simulation and have them highlighted in a color of your choosing without being currently selected.
More Simulation Options
These are additional options for the Simulation tab. These provide further finer control of liquid simulations.
Particle Margin - The distance at which particles interact with each other.
Kinematic Margin - The particle distance at which particles interact with other particles, and/or kinematic objects within the simulation.
Damping - the damping/settling applied to particles within the simulation.
Dissipation - this controls how the fluid dissipates as individual particles come to rest.
Static Friction - The threshold 'stickiness' or friction of particles within a simulation before they will act independently. For instance, in a sticky fluid, static friction may be high. In a watery fluid, this will be low. You can adjust to your hearts' content.
Restitution -
Sleep Threshold - The speed limit at which particles are considered to be at rest and thus excluded from the simulation.
Shock Propagation -
Fluid Rest Distance - The distance at which fluid particles come to rest in relation to each other.