Make a flat object "drape" like cloth

Is there anyway to use the flex settings to make an object (one prim or several prims) that would simulate draping over the edges another object like cloth does? For instance a table cloth on a table.

Realizing that many things in SL are rough approximations and not perfect simulations, I would be more than happy with a rough approximation. For instance the object the simulated cloth lays on might have to be custom made for the effect to work. For example a certain size and physical.

Any help, including "this is impossible" would be appreciated.

Sorry, this is impossible because flexis must be phantom. I think your best bet is to use sculpties.

I think it depends on what you want it to do.

You can make a cylindar or cube and make it flexi. A texture could make it look like a table cloth hanging down.

But if you want to flop it over something and have it drape... just remember one side of a flexi does not flex.

Hope that makes sense.

You can't do it with a single prim, but you can combine prims to fool the eye into thinking it sees a single draped prim. Take a look at the buffet table I just set out on the plaza at the Only Yesterday sim. The drape effect is achieved with a combination of distorted cones, spheres, and a cylinder.

Which would be good to know since I can't really find any documentation in the Flexible features. Which side won't flex?

The end toward the bottom. When you rez a potentially flexible prim and then apply flex parameters to it, the TOP is flexible, but the bottom is fixed. If you want it to wave in the wind like a flag, on hang like a draped dishcoth, you have to grab it and turn it upside down or sideways.

1)Try to find a modifiable sculpty (or better even, the sculptmap itself for future use) which has shortly rounded edges on the top side, but as sharp as possible edges on the bottom side. This will serve as the part that lies on the top of table. Finding a good sculpty for this can be tricky, since textures don't always wrap nice on them, it really varies per sculpty.
2) Link flexi prims to the sharp edges, bottom up, so the non-flex side connects to the sculpty. A box prim with negative taper should work for this.
3) Sort out sizes and textures, and you're done

I once did something similar, trying to make a flexi beach towel, supposed to wrap realisticly over the sand. For obvious reasons (which I now know), I failed

Not QUITE impossible, but nearly.

SL does not have "cloth physics"...flexiprims are a viewer-side phenomenon, and so are sculpties. Both types of object act, physically, as their base prims. Which is why they are almost always made phantom.

There are "skirt sitter" scripts for flexis. These make the flexiprims in a skirt rotate when an avatar sits. When adjusted right, the skirt will, at least very crudely, "drape" over the thighs and knees, instead of hanging straight down between your legs.

Or you can simulate draped cloth, in a static way, by using sculpties, as another poster suggested.

"Crudely" is the right word. The "skirt sitter" scripts simply rotate the skirt forward at the waistline when you sit down, so that the skirt sticks out in front of you instead of hanging down. The script doesn't change the skirt itself in any way. The only reason the skirt appears to drape over your legs is that the whole thing is rotated toward the horizontal.

I have tried a few variations on this theme, and am less than impressed. For one thing, by rotating the skirt forward, the script jams it into your stomach (making a potentially ugly mess) and leaves your backside exposed (making another potentially ugly mess). For another, these scripts are all, naturally, activated by a sit, which means that your skirt flies up any time you "sit" on something (e.g., when you step onto a pose stand, use a dance pose ball, use some TP routines, ...). Third, the scripts work best for short skirts, and not well at all for longer ones, which still look goofy over your knees. Finally, it's hard to sell a skirt that the user has to remember to adjust all the time, even if it's just to turn the stupid script off and on.

Not having looked at this particular table, I agree, it is possible with multiple prims. Using a prim slightly larger than the flat table top and the texture of the tablecloth applied, place it on top of the table. From the edges, attach flex prims to the four outside edges of the table, with the non flex edges meeting with the flat edge of the top (horizontal) piece. Then using hollowed and cut cylinders (or cones, your preference) add them to the corners. The flex prims will not attach to each other on the sides, so it's not a perfect effect, but it is an "it'll do" effect, as best you can get in SL.

That's what I envision based on what I've seen mentioned in this thread.

A

Yup. Save yourself a few prims by not including table parts you won't see, like the table top itself -- maybe even the legs if you let the tablecloth hang to the floor. To make the top have rounded edges, you can squash a sculpty box nice and flat or, if you like oval-shaped tables, stretch and squash a sphere instead. From there, it's as you described it ... a combination of tweaked cones or cylinders to simulate folded fabric and a bit of flexi (with low wind and high gravity) for the basic structure. It's fairly convincing.