This tutorial will guide you through one way of setting up an animated sliding door in a vrml world using 3ds max. You will be provided with a prepared AutoCAD (3rooms.dwg) model of three rooms, comprising walls, ceiling, floor and a door, as shown above. You will import the AutoCAD model to 3ds max. You will apply lights, materials, cameras, and a navigation helper as previously done in the Tutorial #1 – VRML room of primitives! tutorial. You will animate the door to make it slide, and then create a ‘touch sensor’ helper to control the door opening.

Finally you export as a virtual reality model in the form of a VRML file. You will view and interact with the VRML file (world, *.wrl) using a web browser. When completed you will be able to freely navigate around and view the internal spaces and click on the door to open it.

Download 3d modelling for Virtual Reality Tutorial #2 – VRML sliding door