Hey guys,So being brand new to ADE and seeing that it does work a little differently I have a couple of quick questions. ADE appears to be a great program btw, a big thank you to the developers!So just a quick question, using the new Manchester X series as an example. If I open up the EGCC AF2.bgl in ADE and then just assign, CO and COA to gate 211 so they are always next to me when I park at 210 and do not touch anything else do I then re-save the file using the same file name (existing UK2000 file) or do I replace the existing file with the new ADE .BGL and leave them both? I assume not as two AF2 BGL's has always been a no no.For right now I have saved the ADE work as new .bgl, MOVED the original AF2_EGCC_UK2xTRM.bgl to a backup location and put the new .bgl ADE created into the UK2000 Scenery directory so I am only using one file...Is that right? It seems as though it should be correct but I want to make sure I don't screw anything up because I am so good at that... ;)Thanks in advance,-Paul

Hey guys,So being brand new to ADE and seeing that it does work a little differently I have a couple of quick questions. ADE appears to be a great program btw, a big thank you to the developers!So just a quick question, using the new Manchester X series as an example. If I open up the EGCC AF2.bgl in ADE and then just assign, CO and COA to gate 211 so they are always next to me when I park at 210 and do not touch anything else do I then re-save the file using the same file name (existing UK2000 file) or do I replace the existing file with the new ADE .BGL and leave them both? I assume not as two AF2 BGL's has always been a no no.For right now I have saved the ADE work as new .bgl, MOVED the original AF2_EGCC_UK2xTRM.bgl to a backup location and put the new .bgl ADE created into the UK2000 Scenery directory so I am only using one file...Is that right? It seems as though it should be correct but I want to make sure I don't screw anything up because I am so good at that... ;)Thanks in advance,-Paul

ADE seems to, by default, save files under its own naming system - this is no bad thing as ADE files can contain a lot of things that AFCAD can not - and there is a risk that if saved under the AF2 name you could re-open in in AFCAD later and destroy some work.So I would say you are wise to save it under its new name and remove the old AFCAD. You certainly don't want two such files!John

ADE seems to, by default, save files under its own naming system - this is no bad thing as ADE files can contain a lot of things that AFCAD can not - and there is a risk that if saved under the AF2 name you could re-open in in AFCAD later and destroy some work.So I would say you are wise to save it under its new name and remove the old AFCAD. You certainly don't want two such files!John

Thanks John! So I think it actually was able to save two files. One in .BGL format which was the original imported file modified with my changes that I placed in the UK2000 scenery directory and a second .ADE file which from my limited reading appears to be almost a "project file" which saves everything FS does not need but that ADE uses on its own. I also like the fact it left my original file unmodified so I always have my backup. Again, although it uses its own naming convention and takes a bit of studying it does appear to be a very powerful tool. Also interesting that you can always modify an AFCAD in ADE but once you have modified something in ADE you should not try to edit it in AFCAD.Cheers for the very fast response, greatly appreciated!-Paul

Also interesting that you can always modify an AFCAD in ADE but once you have modified something in ADE you should not try to edit it in AFCAD.Cheers for the very fast response, greatly appreciated!-Paul

Do yourself a huge favor and remove AFCAD completely from your system. As you've now seen, you don't need it anymore! ADE9X is a vast improvement over Lee's venerable program, but like DOS v3.1 it's time to move on... :(

I haven't played around much with FS9 AFCADs, certainly not in a production environment, but I think the intended workflow in updating an AFCAD 2.21-generated file is to open the airport from bgl using the AF2 file, then loading stock data, then doing your edits. When complete, compile your bgl with a new name such as the suggested ADE9 format name (using settings for your custom suffix). You would then remove or deactivate the original AF2 file (I usually just change the extension from bgl to :( and put the ADE9 bgl in its place. When you load the stock data, you need to be a careful about the categories of items to import, for example if the AF2 is part of a larger scenery that includes moved taxisigns, you probably don't want to import the stock ones.In some cases there might be secondary bgl files in the scenery (ones that appear to be "duplicate AFCADs" when scanned) that can be imported into your ADE9 project, so that they are combined into a single ADE9 bgl.scott s..

Do yourself a huge favor and remove AFCAD completely from your system. As you've now seen, you don't need it anymore! ADE9X is a vast improvement over Lee's venerable program, but like DOS v3.1 it's time to move on... :(

I disagree. I use AFCAD2, AFX and ADE in appropriate circumstances. There are occasions when a quick modification to an existing AFCAD file (as opposed to a default FS airport) is much more easily dealt with in AFCAD or AFX as it doesn't save under a different file name and involve the need to remove the other file as the original poster has had to do.I find all three have their good and bad points for ease of use.John

I thought ADE is only working with FSX?Wolfgang

I thought ADE is only working with FSX?Wolfgang

Nope, FS9 or FSX...Paul

Ok, I'll ask for everyone else who does not know what ADE is. Please explain for all of us in that boat. thanks jerrycwo4

Ok, I'll ask for everyone else who does not know what ADE is. Please explain for all of us in that boat. thanks jerrycwo4

http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

Airport Design Editor (ADE) is a graphical design tool to create and enhance airports for Microsoft Flight Simulator X. It takes it's inspiration from the excellent AFCAD2 developed for FS9 by Lee Swordy. ADE does for FSX what AFCAD does for FS9 and adds support for new FSX features such as fences, jetways and terrain. ADE is being developed with the help of a small group of dedicated airport designers with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

The above text hasn't been updated lately, because on the News page is an updated description:

Airport Design Editor 9X ReleasedAugust 29, 2009ScruffyDuck Software and the ADE Development Team are delighted to announce the release of ADE9X. This is the first version of Airport Design Editor to support both FS9 and FSX. The new functionality means that FS9 airport developers now have access to most of the functionality that has been available to FSX designers for some time. This includes the Approach Designer and all the other tools that allow users to work with buildings, signs etc. The only area currently not supported for FS9 is terrain elements such as land class, roads and so on. We have spent a lot of time working on making the importation of AFCAD files into ADE as easy as possible.

I find all three have their good and bad points for ease of use.

The only use to which I put AFCAD2 is the "Aircraft Editor" function, which provides me the ability to easily reset the model's radius so I can change the default Spot View's camera position......which is easier than using a hex editor because I don't have to remember which offset bits to twiddle! :(

I've used it to create a curved Canarsie Visual approach for my 1958 and 1962 FS2004 Idlewild (Kennedy) airport in New York. It's so cool to see the AI aircraft turn sharply and land. :)

FWIW I tested using ADE9X to modify an AFX file loading it as a base file and it had all of the objects including exclusion .bgls. It saved without error to a file I named AFxxx.bgl and then I changed the extension of the original AFX_ file so it would not load but remain available as backup.

Thanks for the reply. That stuffs way over my head. jerrycwo4

Hey guys,So being brand new to ADE and seeing that it does work a little differently I have a couple of quick questions. ADE appears to be a great program btw, a big thank you to the developers!So just a quick question, using the new Manchester X series as an example. If I open up the EGCC AF2.bgl in ADE and then just assign, CO and COA to gate 211 so they are always next to me when I park at 210 and do not touch anything else do I then re-save the file using the same file name (existing UK2000 file) or do I replace the existing file with the new ADE .BGL and leave them both? I assume not as two AF2 BGL's has always been a no no.For right now I have saved the ADE work as new .bgl, MOVED the original AF2_EGCC_UK2xTRM.bgl to a backup location and put the new .bgl ADE created into the UK2000 Scenery directory so I am only using one file...Is that right? It seems as though it should be correct but I want to make sure I don't screw anything up because I am so good at that... ;)Thanks in advance,-Paul

When you complete modifying your airport file, compile the bgl. When the menu box pops up showing you all the bgl files in that folder. Find the airport file you're working on and highlight it. ADE will change the name and overwrite exsisting bgl. Now you don't have duplicate afcadsBill M

If I want to modify some FS9 AFCADs and/or create some crazy approaches using ADE (SKBO's VOR-C and SKMD visuals are tempting me), do I still need FSX SDK? Silly question, but I had to make it :(Best regards from Colombia,Luis Miguel