I’m new to MSFS 2024 but not to airport design. I did some large projects for FSX and about 700 small updates to airports for my own use when I was on FSX, so I became very familiar with ADE. However, I skipped MSFS 2020 (life got in the way) and went straight to MSFS 2024, so tackling even small updates to airports in the new sim has been…a challenge. Do we know how close the team is to giving us the ability to directly edit airports “in place” (along the lines of what ADE used to accomplish), particularly where it comes to gate, jetway, and layout updates for smaller airports that tend to be overlooked? Thanks!
Hello,
There is no plan to make an external tool like ADE to edit a scenery or airport as the Developer Mode built into the sim already allows you to make such work (through the scenery editor and project editor tools).
Some links from the documentation that might be useful:
You can also check the SDK which contains a few samples.
The KALO sample should be a good starting point to understand how things work.
Hope it helps,
Regards,
Boris
Thanks. I may just need to sit tight for the World Hub to reopen, as that will accomplish a similar result. I just don’t want to rebuild entire airports when all I need to do is add/modify the gates or make small changes to the taxi network. It seems that is not possible without access to the World Hub tools for these airports.
If you had MSFS 2020, you could use ADE for 2020. Flesh out the airport elements, and load the project to MSFS 2024. But you don’t have that.
The SDK does include BglExplorer. Using the VirtualFileExplorer tool, you could find the bgl that contains the Generic Airport you want, and examine the airport data it contains.You can even copy the bgl to another folder on your PC, and examine that offline.
Between that info, and what the Devmode menu Debug | Airport can show you, you would have a path to start making a replacement airport. Or wait for the WorldHub, if it ever arrives. OR find a friend with MSFS2020 and convince him to give you ADE-made projects to use in making 2024 airports.
Meanwhile, yes, study the KALO sample from the SDK.
Thank you, rhumbaflappy, and thanks again for SBuilderX, which I used constantly in FSX. I will definitely explore the BglExplorer when I am in front of my MSFS computer again. I’d rather get started rather than wait for the WorldHub.
Just to be clear, this will allow me to edit an airport’s network (correct gates & attach new gates to taxiways) without having to rebuild the entire airport? If so, that would be great!
Thanks!
If you want to just change the runway/taxi/parking elements, you can select them to delete, and then rebuild just those elements. Those elements are all connected. You can’t just add a parking type, for example. You need to build the whole runways, taxiways, and parkings.. I think of this structure as a fishbone, and it really is one element.
I attached a small airport package. 41WI, north of Elkhorn,Wisconsin,USA. Grass runway and one parking, ready to alter in Devmode.
Paddock-Field.zip (16.0 KB)
Here is a link to a youtube playlist that walks through the airport creation process. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiEKiz8ROD3BdJTzWJvYZb96Qv8eg1R6L
It’s for MSFS 2020, but is very like 2024. Youtube has many MSFS airport creation tutorials
I’ll check out the tutorial and other airport when I get back from vacation next week, but yes, I want to update gate info/positions without having to rebuild the entire taxiway/runway network. So airport updates may become a thing of the past for me if that’s not possible without the WorldHub… The airport I want to edit is KGUC. They put the gates too close to the terminal, and they put the jetways across the parking spots, essentially disabling one of the spots entirely. All I want to do is move those into the correct places without messing up/rebuilding the network.
Honestly, if the BglExplorer allows me to get the BGL data into an XML format to edit the gate/jetway locations, that could be a way around rebuilding everything else. Looking forward to playing with it next week.
Thanks again!
Not possible. You would need to exclude the current network, and then replace that. Anything not excluded could be left alone. For example, if you want to add another parking spot, you need to rebuild the whole taxipath system to add that new spot. Even changing the parking type, or radius, of one spot means you have to replace the whole network. So if you can duplicate the current network, then it would be easy to change part of it. In the above example. I used MSFS2020 and ADE to duplicate (as well as possible) the airport data for runway/taxiway/parking. And then I’m able to use that as a project to change that network as needed. Exclude as necessary, then rebuild as needed.
Thanks, and yes, that’s what I discovered a couple of weeks ago. I’ll start playing with it and see what happens now that I’m back at my MSFS computer. Worst case scenario is that I go ahead and purchase 2020 to allow me to edit through ADE.
After our message exchange, it got me thinking about the file structure of these airports. So I just wanted to let you know that I found a way to import the gate/runway/taxiways/signs/apron info without MSFS 2020. Because I’d made this custom airport for FSX (using SBuilderX to import/trace the accurate satellite data), I went back to my work, copied the data from the ADE-created XML into my new MSFS 2024 project for the airport, and held my breath when I opened the project. Much to my surprise, my custom airport appeared! Yes, there was some cleanup to do, but as I have a number of custom airports I that I created this way, it’s nice to know there is now a shortcut to start editing these in the absence of the World Hub. Amazing that the 20+ year-old file structure of these MS airports still holds up!
Best,
Carlyle