If you're trying to figure out how to get a roblox elevator script with buttons working in your latest build, you've probably realized it's a bit more annoying than it looks. Building the actual box is the easy part, but getting it to move smoothly between floors without flinging your players into the void is where things usually get messy. Most of us start by searching the Toolbox for a prefab, only to find they're either broken, outdated, or filled with weird laggy code that makes the elevator jitter like it's caffeinated.
Writing your own script isn't just about making the thing move; it's about control. You want the doors to open at the right time, you want the buttons to light up, and you definitely don't want the lift to leave without the person who just pressed the button. Let's break down how to actually set this up so it feels professional and, more importantly, actually works every time.
Setting up the physical parts
Before you even touch a script, you need a solid foundation. You can't just slap a script onto a random part and hope for the best. Usually, you'll want a "Car" model which is the actual room people stand in. Inside that model, you need a PrimaryPart. This is usually an invisible brick that acts as the "anchor" for everything else. If you move this part, everything else moves with it—if you've rigged it correctly with Welds or a WeldConstraint.
Then, you have your buttons. In a basic setup, you'll have a button inside the elevator and buttons on each floor. For the sake of your sanity, name them clearly. Don't leave them as "Part." Name them "Floor1Button," "Floor2Button," and so on. This makes referencing them in your roblox elevator script with buttons a whole lot easier later on.
Choosing your movement method
There are a few ways to make things move in Roblox, but for an elevator, TweenService is almost always the way to go. You could use BodyMovers or even just change the CFrame in a loop, but TweenService gives you that buttery smooth acceleration and deceleration. It makes it feel like a real elevator instead of a teleporting box.
When you use TweenService, you're basically telling the game: "Hey, take this elevator from Point A to Point B over the next 5 seconds, and make it start slow and end slow." It handles all the math for you. The trick is making sure the server is the one handling the movement. If you do it on a LocalScript, other players won't see the elevator moving, which leads to people standing in mid-air or falling through the floor.
Connecting the buttons to the brain
This is where a lot of people get stuck. You have a button (a Part with a ClickDetector or a ProximityPrompt) and you have the elevator script. How do they talk?
The best way is to use a central script—usually tucked away in ServerScriptService or inside the Elevator model itself—that listens for clicks. When a player clicks the "Floor 2" button, the script needs to check two things: 1. Is the elevator already moving? 2. Is the elevator already at Floor 2?
If the answer to both is "no," then the script triggers the movement. It's a good idea to add a "debounce" or a status variable like isMoving = true at the start of the function. This prevents players from spamming the button and breaking the Tween, which usually results in the elevator getting stuck halfway between floors or flying off into space.
Handling multiple floors
A two-floor elevator is easy, but once you add a third or fourth, you need a better system than just "If button 1 is pressed, go here." You should probably store your floor heights in a table. For example, Floor 1 might be at a Y-coordinate of 10, Floor 2 at 25, and Floor 3 at 40.
When a button is pressed, the script just looks up the Y-value for that floor and tells the TweenService to move the PrimaryPart to that height. This keeps your code clean. Instead of writing ten different functions for ten different floors, you write one function that takes a "floor number" as an input. It's much more efficient and way easier to debug if something goes wrong.
Don't forget the doors
An elevator without doors is just a moving platform. Adding doors makes the whole thing much more complex because now you have to time everything. The sequence usually goes: 1. Button is pressed. 2. Doors close (another Tween). 3. Elevator moves to the target floor. 4. Elevator stops. 5. Doors open.
If you're feeling fancy, you can add a small delay before the doors close so players have time to jump in. Also, make sure the doors are welded to the elevator car or move relative to it. If you move the elevator but leave the doors behind, it's going to look pretty silly. Most developers use a "MoveTo" or another Tween for the doors relative to the elevator's CFrame to keep them perfectly aligned.
Dealing with the "physics" problem
Roblox physics can be a bit temperamental with moving platforms. Sometimes, if an elevator moves too fast, the player might clip through the floor or start bouncing around. To fix this, a lot of people use PrismaticConstraints, but honestly, if you keep your Tween speeds reasonable and your elevator floor thick enough, you shouldn't have too many issues.
Another tip: set the elevator car's parts to CanCollide = true (obviously) but maybe turn off CanTouch for the interior parts if you have scripts that trigger on touch, just to prevent any weird physics glitches while the car is in motion.
Making it look and sound right
To really sell the effect, you need more than just movement. A simple "ding" sound when the elevator reaches a floor goes a long way. You can trigger this at the end of your Tween's Completed event.
Visual feedback on the buttons is also huge. When a player clicks "Floor 3," make that button glow or change color. It lets them know the game actually registered their click. In your roblox elevator script with buttons, you can just change the button's Material to Neon and then switch it back to SmoothPlastic once the elevator arrives. It's a small detail, but it makes the game feel finished rather than like a rough prototype.
Common pitfalls to avoid
One of the biggest mistakes is not anchoring the elevator when it's not moving. If it's not anchored (or held by a constraint), it might slowly drift or be pushed by players jumping inside it. Another issue is not handling the case where multiple people press buttons for different floors at the same time.
If you want a truly advanced system, you'd implement a "queue." If someone presses 2 and then someone presses 4, the elevator should go to 2 first, wait a few seconds, and then head to 4. For a simple build, though, just ignoring button presses while the lift is in motion is usually fine and saves you a massive headache.
Testing and refining
Once you've got your roblox elevator script with buttons written, test it with multiple players. Physics behaves differently when there are three people jumping around in a small box versus one person standing still. You might find that you need to adjust the TweenInfo time or change the easing style to make it feel more stable.
If the elevator feels "laggy" to the players inside, you might want to look into Network Ownership. By default, the server owns the elevator parts. This is usually fine, but some developers give network ownership of the car to the player inside to make it feel smoother for them. However, that can be risky because it opens the door for exploiters to fly the elevator around the map. Keeping it server-side is generally the safest bet for most games.
At the end of the day, a good elevator is one that players don't even think about. It should just work. It should take them where they want to go, the doors should open, and they should be on their way. If you follow these logic steps, you'll have a reliable system that beats any buggy free model you'll find in the library.