Abstract: An efficient method for constructing an open 3D robot simulation environment is presented. Based on the platform of Matlab software, this method integrates the 3D solid design softwares such as Pro/E, Matlab Robot Toolbox and Matlab 3D visualization technology to construct a 3D robot simulation environment with good visualization and highly detailed model. Taking widely applied VA1400 arc welding robot as an example, steps of this method are presented in detail, including the construction of 3D robot model, data importation of solid model and 3D animation display of the simulation system. Thereafter, a high-level open robot simulation system with good 3D visualization is achieved. Snapshots and simulation graphs are presented, which prove the effectiveness of our method.