BSnow V0.1

INSTALLATION:

From the Edit Menu > Preferences > Add-ons > locate file and click ‘Install Add-on’, enable the add-on, save preset, then restart Blender.

The BSnow add-on can be found in the ‘N’ panel.

WORKFLOW:

Set a Domain:

Select the object you wish to run the snow simulation on. Open the ‘N’ panel and select the Snow tab. To add a domain to the selected object click the ‘+’ button. The default generated domain can be resized if needed but make sure to apply scale (Ctrl A).

Generate a Collision Mesh:

Before going any further, it is important to test the geometry and generate a collision mesh. This will show how the snow simulation will interact with the object. If edges are too sharp, errors can appear and the snow will not simulate well. The collision mesh can be deleted after testing.

Collision Mesh results before and after cleaning up sharp edges...

Run Snow Simulation:

At this point you can run a test simulation using the default settings. The simulation will run for as many frames as has been set for rendering/playback. If you want to stop the simulation at any point you can press the ‘Esc’ key on your keyboard.

To view/playback the simulation after creation you will need to make sure to ‘Cache’ the simulation to disc by pressing the tape button on the right.

You can choose the location on your computer to store this cache and if you have a crash and wish to recover the alembic cache from disk you can click the 'restore' button as shown below.

Adjust Resolution:

These values determine the resolution of the simulation. Higher numbers will take longer to process, so it’s best to test with lower numbers first. You can upsample extra geometry resolution using the ‘Interpolation’ drop down.

Particles:

Particle settings give you greater control over the size and amount of particles. ‘Radius’ should be set to a value close to the voxel length to avoid errors.

Setting the ‘Scope’ value low will be faster to process but can truncate the particle shape.

Enabling ‘Export’ before running the simulation will create a new object in the Outliner of the exported particles. By using the particles with Metaballs you can create different artistic results.

HIT allows you to use a vertex group to place particles with group weights.

Physics:

Physics settings give you even greater control over the simulation. Below are some examples of how these values can produce different results. When testing it's best to only change one setting at a time, especially when working with your first simulation it may be best to stick to the default settings.

Higher Viscosity values increase the liquid flow resistance.

Lower Temperature values increase the liquid flow resistance.

Smoothness values determine how smooth the curve of snow build-up will be.

Creating Batch Domains

If you want to run more than one domain simulation on your object, you can use the 'Batch' option.

Add a cube mesh for each domain you want to add to the batch. Shift click these objects one at a time making sure to select your sim object last. Clicking the '+' will convert these cubes to domains and add them to the Snow Batch Index. Each domain in this list will have it's own unique settings that can be changed independently of each other.

When you now run the Snow Simulation each domain will process one at a time.

More:
TUTORIALS

Common Issues:

As with most 3D workflows it’s important that the model you are running the snow simulation on has clean geometry for the simulation to work well.

If there is non-manifold geometry or edges are too sharp it is likely to cause errors or unwanted artifacts.

When editing the domain you should make sure to apply scale afterwards, this will help eliminate many issues.