Pulldownit 5.0 for Maya released

Pulldownit 5.0 has got new visual workflows for controlling where the mesh fractures and also new parameters for keeping the fragments formed by cracks on the surface within the boundaries, so that multiple delaminations from the surface can be controlled. The performance of the plug-in has been improved: the crack solver is now “at least twice as fast” and fracture operations create lighter meshes for modelling. Pulldownit 5.0 gives users the ability to select parts of a guide curve to determine which part of that curve is used for fracture, and then drag the fracture area up and down the curve to adjust it.

It is now possible to shrink or expand the fracture area by dragging it in the view window, providing instant visual feedback on the density of the generated fragments, as can be seen in the video below.

Once the mesh has been fractured, the new Bounded setting controls how far fragments can move away from the epicenter of the fracture, allowing you to control how much debris remains on the surface. As noted above, plugin performance has been improved, with Pulldownit scenes now loading “at least 2x faster” in Maya.
In addition, Jagginess, which creates realistically rough surfaces on mesh fragments, is now only applied to those parts of the mesh affected by the fracture simulation. This change should lead to more simulation-friendly results.
The developers demonstrated in the example a test simulation generating 90,000 Pulldownit 5.0 triangles, compared to 160,000 in Pulldownit 4.0.

Pulldownit 5.0  for Maya is available for the 64-bit version of Maya 2018 and higher, running on windows, Linux or macOS. The plugin is only distributed by subscription, with a node-linked cost of €270 per year. The cost of a floating license is €340 per year.