Set up BigDoors on your Minecraft server

BigDoors lets players build animated doors out of ordinary blocks: big doors, drawbridges, portcullises and sliding doors. Every block in the door moves when it opens. This guide installs BigDoors on a Paper or Purpur server, makes the first door and covers permissions and the common conflicts.

Checked against BigDoors 0.1.8.72 on Paper 26.1.2, October 2026. Its Modrinth page lists Minecraft 1.11 to 26.3 for that release.

Before you start

• You need a Paper or Purpur server, which show a Plugins tab (Install Minecraft plugins on Paper or Purpur).
• BigDoors is the original "v1" plugin. Its README says a rewrite called AnimatedArchitecture is in development, and the store lists that as a separate plugin. Pick the row whose description starts with "Create" and ends "portcullises, and more!". The AnimatedArchitecture row reads "BigDoors v2: Create big, ANIMATED doors, drawbridges, portcullises, flags, windmills, and more!".
• The plugin's README lists GeyserMC and ViaRewind as unsupported together with BigDoors. The Crossplay tab installs Geyser, so do not enable crossplay on a server that runs BigDoors.

Install BigDoors

1. Open the Backups tab and press Create backup.
2. Select Plugins and type BigDoors in the search box. Modrinth is the default source.
3. Press Install on the BigDoors row. The panel picks the newest build made for your Minecraft version.
4. Open the Console tab and press Restart.

Make your first door

BigDoors sets its permissions to operators only by default, so an operator can use it straight away. Join as an operator (How to whitelist players and set operators) and run:

1. /newdoor for a big door. Add a flag for another type: -DB drawbridge, -PC portcullis, -SD sliding door. For example, /newdoor -PC MyGate names a portcullis. The plugin also has /newdrawbridge, /newportcullis and /newslidingdoor.
2. If it asks for a name, run /namedoor <name>.
3. You are given a creator stick and have 120 seconds. Hit one corner of the door, then the opposite corner. Pick the second corner as far from the first as you can while staying on the door.
4. Big doors and drawbridges then ask for a rotation point, the column of blocks the door swings around. Portcullises and sliding doors stop after two points.
5. Run /bdcancel at any time to abandon the creation.

BigDoors works through a power block, a gold block by default. Manage your doors in the in-game menu with /bdm, and open or close one with /opendoor <name>, /closedoor <name> and /toggledoor <name>. While allowRedstone is on, which it is by default, a redstone signal at the power block also opens the door.

Permissions

Regular players need permissions. Give them through your permissions plugin (Set up LuckPerms on your Minecraft server). The README names bigdoors.user.* as the starting point for what a player should generally be allowed to do. The plugin's plugin.yml does not list bigdoors.user.gui or the creation nodes under it, so grant those by name as well. Its children for deleting, door info and toggling are spelled bigdoors.user.delete, .info and .toggle, but the real nodes are bigdoors.user.deletedoor, bigdoors.user.doorinfo and bigdoors.user.toggledoor. Grant those three by name too, unless your permissions plugin expands wildcards itself. bigdoors.user.gui opens /bdm. Creating each door type needs bigdoors.user.createdoor.bigdoor, .drawbridge, .portcullis or .slidingdoor, or bigdoors.user.createdoor.* for all four. bigdoors.own.<number> caps how many doors a group may own, for example bigdoors.own.4. Admin commands sit under bigdoors.admin.*.

Settings

Stop the server and open plugins/BigDoors/config.yml in the File Manager. The options include maxDoorSize (default -1, no limit), allowRedstone and resourcePackEnabled. Save, then run /BigDoors restart in game to reload the config, or restart from the Console tab.

BigDoors also has an auto-update option that is on by default and downloads new releases itself, applying them on restart. Set it to false if you would rather update from the Installed view of the Plugins tab.

Common problems

• The plugin's resource pack clashes with yours. The optional pack only carries door sounds. Set resourcePackEnabled to false if you already use a resource pack. Everything but the sounds still works.
• Door blocks vanish and reappear. The README says anti-lag plugins remove the entities BigDoors uses. Add entities of type FallingBlock named BigDoorsEntity to their whitelist.
• Console commands ignore a door's name. From the Console tab you must use the door's numeric UID. Names only work for players in game.
• Very large doors lag players. Every block becomes an entity, so big doors are hard on clients. Lower maxDoorSize to cap them.