Hi all,

Has any of you ever cloned AL sliding closets ?

I'm only in test phase, but basically I'd like to create a built-in closet, keeping Maxis racks, shelf and clothes. I only want to change the door, and make it open by rotating rather than sliding. Do you reckon I should make changes in ANIM files or in the CRES (or both) ?

I read somewhere that by default Maxis doors don't have ANIM files with them, unless they do something else than rotating (like the WatchOwt sliding door). I tried to delete the ANIM files of the closet related to the open/close animation, the door simply didn't move anymore. I feel like I need to reference some kind of anim from the game...

Thanks for any tips or orientations you could give me!

The closet uses morphs to animate the door. I don't know if it's possible to just extract the mesh, change the morph positions in a 3d editor and import them back into the game but it might be worth trying it out because if that actually works it'd be 1000% easier. Otherwise, looking at how the armoire doors work (jointed animations) is what you'll be trying to replicate to rebuild how the closet doors animate. Most of those changes will be CRES edits.

ETA: Another way to make your object could be cloning an armoire (that has jointed, rotating doors already) and editing the BHAVs to add the placement and wall cutouts that the closets have.

Thanks for the reply Honeywell! I'm not familiar with morphs at all. I tried to export the mesh, but when importing it in my 3D editor (I use Wings3D), there was nothing to be seen other than the mesh itself. I'll try some other ways.

As for your other suggestions, I think I'll stick with trying to replicate armoires door animations, because I'd like to keep all the other animations from the closet (when sims move clothes around, etc).

I won't be able to work on that project for a few weeks, but I'll let you know how things go when I get back. If anyone wants to give it a shot as well, feel free

If you really just need the closet functions and not everything else (woohoo...), the easiest might be to use an armorie, and move the joints (via the CRES) of the doors to the outer points of where the doors would need to be for a full 2-grid opening, floor to ceiling.
Ingame you'd make a 2-grid opening and place the armorie/doors, instead of a 2-grid room like for closets. Saves you the issues closets have with lights, too.

I don't know if you can change the morphs from a sliding to a swinging motion, but I doubt it's particularly easy. It's easier to manipulate the joints and/or placement.

You will need to do it using Milkshape or Blender - I don't think there's working plugins for other programs - you need the plugins for the skeleton import/export, plus you'll need to link the new mesh to the skeleton. It's similar to making clothes, but you usually have to do the joint assignments manually (there's fewer bones and rarely more than one joint per vertex, so it's not as complicated). There are more tutorials for Milkshape, but I've come across a few for Blender, too.