From installation
to your first production Bake.

Cloth NeXt brings the external PPF Contact Solver into a focused Blender workflow. This guide covers the supported setup from scene roles to cached playback.

Requirements

BLENDER5.0+

Use a supported Blender 5.x build.

PLATFORMWindows x64

The packaged Companion currently targets Windows.

SOLVEROfficial PPF

Installed separately from its verified source.

GPU and memory

Practical scene size depends on VRAM, system RAM, topology, contacts, animated samples and frame count.

Install Cloth NeXt

  1. 1
    Download the product ZIP

    Keep the extension archive intact. Do not extract it.

  2. 2
    Open Get Extensions

    Go to Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions.

  3. 3
    Install from Disk

    Open the repository menu, choose Install from Disk, and select the ZIP.

  4. 4
    Restart Blender

    Restart after installation or whenever Blender requests it.

Install the official PPF solver

Cloth NeXt is the Blender integration layer. The simulation itself is performed by the external PPF Contact Solver from ST Tech / ZOZO.

  1. 1
    Open Cloth NeXt Preferences

    Find Cloth NeXt under Blender's installed Add-ons.

  2. 2
    Choose Managed Installation

    Review the exact official release, source, size and verification data.

  3. 3
    Confirm and verify

    The download starts only after confirmation and must pass SHA-256 verification.

  4. 4
    Run the health check

    A compatible protocol and schema marks the solver Ready.

Never bundled

The solver is not included in the Cloth NeXt ZIP and is never mirrored or redistributed by Cloth NeXt.

Your first Cloth Bake

  1. 1
    Prepare the mesh

    Use clean, constant topology and intentional scale.

  2. 2
    Add the Cloth role

    In Physics Properties, add Cloth NeXt and select Cloth.

  3. 3
    Add a Collider

    Enable Cloth NeXt on the collision mesh and choose Collider.

  4. 4
    Pick material and quality

    Start from a preset and use Low for quick iterations.

  5. 5
    Validate and Bake

    Resolve validation messages, then launch the production Bake.

Cloth NeXt interface in Blender
Cloth setup · Physics Properties

Build one interacting scene

Cloth

A surface mesh simulated as fabric. Multiple deformables can share one solve.

Collider

A static or topology-preserving animated contact surface.

Force

A keyframeable Empty driving supported gravity, wind and air behavior.

Rod / Cable

A Curve sampled as a one-dimensional deformable.

Soft Body

A volumetric deformable using automatic tetrahedralization and surface mapping.

Presets first. Depth when you need it.

The bundled material library provides 37 starting points across seven groups. Presets fill artist-facing controls for weight, stretch, sideways response, bending and stretch protection. Editing a value preserves your choice and moves the setup into a custom state.

LOW

Fast previews and broad motion checks.

MEDIUM

Balanced iteration and stronger contact.

HIGH

Final-oriented settings for demanding scenes.

EXTREME

Expensive last-mile profile; use intentionally.

Static and animation-aware pins

Create a Blender vertex group on the deformable and assign it as the Pin Group.

  • Static: pinned vertices stay at their evaluated Bake Start positions.
  • Follow Animation: pinned vertices follow evaluated Blender animation across the Bake.

Follow Animation is intended for rig-driven waistbands, cuffs, collars and straps. Evaluated topology must remain constant.

Collisions and animated colliders

Friction controls how easily surfaces slide, Surface Offset represents simulated thickness, and Collision Gap controls when collision response begins. Animated colliders are sampled from evaluated Blender geometry.

Use intentional collider topology

Dense animated colliders multiply memory use across every captured sample. Prefer a stable, purpose-built low-poly collision surface when practical.

Keyframeable direction and motion

Add an Empty, enable Cloth NeXt and choose the Force role. Supported gravity, wind and air controls can be animated through normal Blender properties and are evaluated with the rest of the Bake scene.

Bake Companion, cache and playback

Cloth NeXt Bake Companion
Live frame and solver activity

The Companion reports frame progress and current solver activity. Expand Details for performance history, ETA and diagnostic context.

  • Results are written as object-local PC2 playback caches.
  • Incomplete output is never presented as complete.
  • A failed Rebake preserves the previous valid result.
  • Clear Result removes only Cloth NeXt-owned files and playback.

When a Bake fails

  1. 1
    Read the CNX code

    The Companion and Blender show a stable code such as CNX-E161.

  2. 2
    Read the displayed guidance

    The error state names the cause, affected stage and recommended first action.

  3. 3
    Retry after correction

    Fix validation, topology, memory, readiness or convergence as directed.

Important limitations

  • Windows x64 is the currently packaged platform.
  • Topology-changing deformation across a Bake is rejected.
  • PC2 playback requires constant vertex order and count.
  • Capacity depends on topology, contacts, samples, quality, VRAM and RAM.
  • Rod / Cable and Soft Body are less mature than the primary cloth workflow.
  • The external solver has its own license and provenance.

What to include in a report

Run Scene Health and choose Export Privacy-Safe Report. Send the report with the visible CNX error code, Blender version, GPU model and short reproduction steps. The report excludes mesh geometry, object names, file contents and full filesystem paths.