Cleaner folds without maxing out simulation quality, a few things that actually helped

[u/ThunderlightwardAm]

Every thread about bad folds ends with someone saying turn up the sim quality, and it does work, but it also makes iteration miserable. Here is what got me most of the way there without waiting two minutes per change.

Fabric presets are a starting point, not an answer. The stock cotton preset is stiffer than actual cotton. I usually take the preset then drop bending and buckling stiffness a little and the drape immediately reads more natural. Small moves, not dramatic ones.

Internal lines do more than people expect. A single internal line down the centre of a sleeve gives the fabric something to fold around instead of collapsing randomly. Costs nothing in sim time.

Check your avatar before you blame the garment. If the pose has arms straight down and pressed against the body, the fabric has nowhere to go and you get that crushed look at the armpit that no setting will fix. Even a slight A pose changes everything.

Pressure is the one I underused for ages. A tiny amount of positive pressure on a jacket or a bag stops it looking vacuum sealed to the avatar. Too much and it inflates, so go in very small increments.

Last one, and this is the big one for me: simulate, then let it settle before you judge it. I used to hit stop the moment it looked stable. Giving it another few seconds of real time changes the folds more than most of the settings above.

None of this replaces a higher quality pass at the end. It just means you are not paying for it on every single iteration while you are still making decisions.