Cloth Simulation
Cloth Simulation renders your draft as a 3D fabric with real-time physics. The cloth drapes naturally under gravity, and you can interact with it by releasing corners, pushing it with a ball, and placing collision objects underneath. This gives you a sense of how the finished fabric will hang and move.
Opening Cloth Simulation
Ribbon: View tab > Cloth Simulation
Menu (macOS): View > Cloth Simulation
Available to Core and Pro tiers.
The Simulation Window
The window has three areas:
3D Viewport (center) — The interactive cloth simulation
Options Panel (left) — Mockup templates and lighting controls
Menu Bar (top) — Simulation, Mockup, and View menus
Interacting with the Cloth
Camera Controls
Arrow Keys — Orbit the camera around the cloth
Plus / Minus — Zoom in and out
Mouse — Click and drag to rotate the view
Dropping Corners
Release corners of the cloth to let them fall under gravity:
1 — Drop top-left corner
2 — Drop top-right corner
3 — Drop bottom-left corner
4 — Drop bottom-right corner
You can drop multiple corners to create different draping effects.
Pressure Ball
Press B to activate a ball that pushes against the cloth from underneath. Use W/A/S/D to move the ball around. This simulates how the fabric drapes over a rounded form.
Reset
Press R to reset the simulation to its initial flat state with all corners pinned.
View Menu Options
Swap Face (X)
Swaps the front and back textures on the cloth. Like flipping the fabric over to see the other side.
Rendering Options
These options match the View Fabric window and control how the cloth texture is rendered:
Deflected Threads — Shows thread deflection on floats, where threads bend around each other
Double Weave — Renders double cloth structure with both layers visible
Variegated Yarns — Shows color changes in variegated yarns
Proportional — Scales thread widths by the draft's EPI/PPI settings, including any per-section local overrides (see Section Markers → Variable Density)
Yarn Bloom
A submenu with intensity presets: Off, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%. Adds a soft fuzzy effect to the yarn texture.
Remove Background
Clears any background image that has been set behind the cloth.
Mockup Templates
The left panel shows saved mockup templates — pre-configured cloth shapes that you can load to see your fabric draped in a specific way.
Using Templates
Select a template from the list
Click Load Template to apply it
The cloth will reshape to match the template's frozen mesh, with your fabric's texture applied.
Creating Templates
Arrange the cloth using corner drops, the ball, and collision shapes
Press F to freeze the current mesh shape
Click Save Template to save it for future use
Bundled Templates
TempoWeave includes several built-in templates for common presentations. User-created templates can be deleted; bundled templates cannot.
Collision Objects
From the Mockup menu, you can add objects that the cloth drapes over:
Add Cylinder — Places a cylindrical form
Add Box — Places a box form
Clear Shapes — Removes all collision objects
These are useful for simulating how the fabric looks draped over furniture, a mannequin form, or other surfaces.
Lighting Controls
The left panel includes lighting sliders that affect how the 3D cloth is illuminated:
Light Azimuth (0-360) — The horizontal angle of the light source. Rotate it around the cloth to change where highlights and shadows fall.
Light Elevation (5-90) — How high the light is above the cloth. Lower values create longer shadows; higher values give more even lighting.
Brightness (20-200) — Overall light intensity. Increase for a brighter scene, decrease for a moodier look.
Specular (0-100) — The intensity of shiny highlights on the fabric surface. Higher values make the cloth appear more lustrous.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Arrow Keys
Orbit camera
W/A/S/D
Move pressure ball
B
Activate ball
R
Reset simulation
X
Swap front/back face
F
Freeze mesh
1/2/3/4
Drop corners
+/-
Zoom camera
T
Focus template list
Escape
Close window
Tips
Start by loading a bundled template to see your fabric in a realistic drape immediately
Use Swap Face (X) to quickly compare the front and back of your cloth
Adjust the Specular slider to simulate different fiber types — cotton has low specular, silk has high
The Proportional option makes a big difference for drafts where EPI and PPI differ significantly
Freeze and save templates for shapes you use often (like a scarf drape or table runner)
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