All starters

A starter makes a whole simulation in one click: the particles object, its emitter, and either a flow or the sidebar's settings, set up for the effect. It's made at the 3D cursor, ready to bake. What it makes is ordinary VecFlow, so you change it just as you would one you built yourself.

Where they areCopy Anchor Link

• The sidebar. With nothing selected, the VecFlow tab shows New Simulation: a picture card for each starter, in fold-away groups. With a simulation selected, the + in its panel's header opens the same cards.
• The Add menu. In the 3D Viewport, ShiftA ▸ VecFlow.
• From the selected mesh. With a mesh selected, the four starters made from a mesh come first in the sidebar, under From “mesh name”, and follow in the Add menu, named after it.

The starter selects its emitter when it's done, so the sidebar shows the new simulation. Press Bake to see it.

Particles

Particles

A stream of particles from a small emitter, shaped by the sidebar's settings

Fountain

Drops arc up, splash red where they land and burst into bits: a flow of three events, to learn from

Snow

Flakes drifting down in a breeze

Confetti

Paper squares and strips shot up, tumbling down in many colours

Sand

Dry sand pours from a spout into a cone that keeps its slope. Friction sets how steep it stands

Swarm

500 paper darts fly as one flock, following a leader you can move

Smoke, Fire and Water

Fire

Flames and smoke rising off a burner

Smoke

A plume of smoke rising and drifting in the wind

Explosion

A burst of burning gas swelling into a fireball and a rising cloud

Liquid

A dam breaking: a column of water falls and runs along a glass tank

Honey Pour

Thick honey pours onto a wooden rod, wraps it and drips off in strings, with air bubbles in it and a glassy gold surface. Real size: a 3 cm rod. Halve the Liquid's Spacing for the final bake

Bodies

Rigid Bodies

Blocks raining down, tumbling and piling up

Soft Body

A cube of jelly drops, squashes and wobbles back into shape

Cloth

A square of cloth falls over a ball and settles in folds

From the selected mesh

Emit Particles

Particles flying off the active mesh's surface

Set on Fire

Flames and smoke rising off the active mesh's surface

Fill With Water

Water filling the active mesh, which then falls away and splashes

Shatter

Cut the active mesh into pieces, glued together: it falls, and breaks apart where it hits the ground. It should be a closed mesh, above the 3D cursor

Settings or a flowCopy Anchor Link

Particles, Snow, Confetti and Emit Particles run on the sidebar's own settings: the Emission, Forces, Collisions, and Size, Spin and Colour panels. Everything to try is in front of you.

The others have a flow: events wired together, each a list of operators, edited in the flow editor. For these, the simple panels hide, and most settings to try are on the operators. Press Edit Flow in the simulation's panel, select the event, and pick the operator in the editor's sidebar (N ▸ VecFlow ▸ Event): its settings show below the list. These pages write that as Edit FlowFlamesBirthPer Frame: the event, the operator, the setting.

A starter on the sidebar's settings becomes a flow with Convert to Flow, which bakes the same, for when you want more than the panels give.

Smoke and fire looksCopy Anchor Link

The Smoke and Fire panel has six ready-made looks for the gas (Campfire, Candle, Fireball and more), and you can save your own. See Smoke and fire looks.