I know this would have been better posted in their forum but they haven't approved my registration yet so I'd thought I'd just go ahead and ask it here so everyone knows. So what is FSDreamTeam using for their Afcad editor? Please advise and thanks!Mark

For Honolulu they used ADE and for all the rest they used AFCAD.

Thanks for that Joseph. Now I can edit the Afcads with confidence :)Mark

This should be good starting point for you. :( http://www.scruffyduck.org.uk/filemanager/...FFS9%20Airports

This should be good starting point for you. :( http://www.scruffyduck.org.uk/filemanager/...FFS9%20Airports

I went ahead and installed the latest version of ADE and happened to run across that page. It is a help none the less and thank you. You know, ADE looks to be pretty interesting app...I hope they keep developing it because all of these Afcad programs are giving me the blues. We really need to standardize on one program so to minimize the risk of inadvertently damaging our airports. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...come on Scruffy!Mark

We really need to standardize on one program so to minimize the risk of inadvertently damaging our airports.

That's certainly a valid way to look at it.I think we should also look at what an Afcad is and what it isn't and what more and more developers are including in Afcad files. Afcads are the most edited and exchanged files, is it a good idea to include excludes into those files for example? Approach data? Other scenery elements?I think you minimalize if not eliminate the risk by exporting those non-traditional elements to separate files. From the same editor, but to separate files. It's a small effort, but it ensures that people don't break anything and that they can use their editor of choice.:(

I don't really see a problem.Files created with AFCAD2 are named with the format AF2_****.bglFiles created with AFX are named using the format AFX_****.bglFiles created with ADE are named ****_ADE9_**.bgl. . . where **** represents the airport's ICAO code and ** represents the author's initials.AFCAD2 is the only software that will save a file made in the other formats and destroy data not recognised by itself without warning. AFX will warn you when loading an airport whether it is going to strip data out. I'm not sure whether there are any features that ADE won't recognise but I feel sure it would warn you if it did.The biggest problem with destroying data is most definitely AFCAD2, this program is grossly out of date and really shouldn't be used by anybody any more. But people hang on to it because it is both free and easy to use. That's what breaks things.There was a great resistance amongst people to buy AFX when AFCAD2 would do it for nothing but there is really no excuse now that ADE is available free. You should be able to edit a file created by any of these three softwares with ADE, so why use anything else?John

Some people may and actually do prefer other editors and since when have (those naming) conventions been followed by scenery developers? Let alone the rest of us...:(It's not about the editors, it's about the files and about not destroying vital elements of (payware) addon sceneries, that were never meant to be edited by anyone other than the developer. From a support perspective it's already not a good idea.

I suppose to each their own, but IMHO ADE, like SceneGenX, is designed to generate sdk BGLComp-compliant code, so at least you have an understanding of exactly what it is doing, just by looking at the xml. Of course, that doesn't ensure you have figured out exactly what tricks the developer did when the scenery was built, as all the tools were designed primarily to work on default scenery.scott s..

I've been playing with ADE and I'm staring to get used to it...I'm actually starting to like it, however, there is always some feature missing in each of the Afcad editors. I find myself jumping in between them to glean the information that I might use. For instance with ADE, (and I'm so new to it I might have missed it), I cannot find any VOR information. ADE only seems to contain the NDBs and ILS navaids. I am aware that I can add this info by the way. Nevertheless, I still find myself jumping into another editor or flight planner to get what I think I need. Regardless, ADE does provide a lot of really cool functionality like exporting airport information into CSV format. What a great idea and makes the data easy to work with. So Scruffy is on the right track...but development appears to crawl rather then run. I'm guessing that they have day jobs too :)Mark

snip----------- For instance with ADE, (and I'm so new to it I might have missed it), I cannot find any VOR information. ADE only seems to contain the NDBs and ILS navaids. I am aware that I can add this info by the way. Nevertheless, I still find myself jumping into another editor or flight planner to get what I think I need.

VOR data is provided on the grid. Mouseover and you will see all the data. You can also use the list menu to see VOR data for a given area around the airport

Regardless, ADE does provide a lot of really cool functionality like exporting airport information into CSV format. What a great idea and makes the data easy to work with. So Scruffy is on the right track...but development appears to crawl rather then run. I'm guessing that they have day jobs tooMark

ADEX was designed for FSX only when we released the first User version 1.20. In time we added the ability to work with FS9 changing ADEX to ADE9X. We are currently at version 1.47.07. There have been more updates to ADE9X then all the other airport utility's put together. We start a new update list at the begining of each year. You can add to the user request posthttp://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18096and you can go to our Issue and Tracker site to see what is being updated. http://www.issues.scruffyduck.org.uk/Now factor in that ADE9X has written Documents in both English and German (Spanish is in developement) so I am hard pressed to understand why the entire developement team is crawling along. ADE9 does more in FS9 then any other airport enhancement tool so it would be to our advantage if you know of areas we missed to point them out so we can add them into FS9 airport design.jim

I've been playing with ADE and I'm staring to get used to it...I'm actually starting to like it, however, there is always some feature missing in each of the Afcad editors. I find myself jumping in between them to glean the information that I might use. For instance with ADE, (and I'm so new to it I might have missed it), I cannot find any VOR information. ADE only seems to contain the NDBs and ILS navaids. I am aware that I can add this info by the way. Nevertheless, I still find myself jumping into another editor or flight planner to get what I think I need. Regardless, ADE does provide a lot of really cool functionality like exporting airport information into CSV format. What a great idea and makes the data easy to work with. So Scruffy is on the right track...but development appears to crawl rather then run. I'm guessing that they have day jobs too :)Mark

I think Jim has answered the question as to VORs - all navigational elements including waypoints are available and displayed in Approach Mode. Lists > Navaids in Approach mode will display all such within a radius of 60nm from the airport reference point.As to development being at a crawl I am also a little bemused. For the past three or four years we have continually developed and upgraded ADE. It is true that there has been no major release since last fall. However that is, in part due to the fact that the base code (about 120k lines in all) is being largely re-written to improve overall performance and part that I (as the main developer) am in the process of moving from one part of the UK to another. Since ADE is freeware and costs quite a lot to maintain and develop I do need to work on other things as well!One of the issues with developing software is scope. The danger in putting everything that is asked for into one program is that is becomes unwieldy and has a significant learning curve. The ADE manuals already run to around 200 pages. Nevertheless we try always to respond to suggestions for improvement and there are a list of new functions that will be in the next release (1.50) I cannot make any promises as to a release date except to say it will be released.On the subject of different editors and what they all do - there is no doubt that it is safer to use a single tool once you get started on an airport. Generally the editor it was created in is of less importance. It is mentioned above that both AFCAD and AFX use their own compilers. This does mean that there are some non standard elements in them. ADE9 on the other hand uses the MS standard compiler. This gives advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that we know what is being generated and it meets the standard requirements (and incidentally uses the tool that MS used to compile stock airports). The disadvantage is that non standard compilers can tweak the bgl code directly. We should remamber that when Le wrote AFCAD there was no MS compiler readily available so he did not have much choice.We spent a lot of time with ADE9 to make sure that it can read AF2 files safely and I know of only one exception that is not well handled in ADE9 at the moment. In the end which editor you prefer comes down to personal choice (and cost perhaps....)

I doff my cap to Jon and Jim, unsung heroes of FS IMHO. :(

Well thanks for the responses Jim and Scruff. All I know is that I've been writing software for about 27 years now and speak many languages. The last thing I enhanced was an MRP system for a train manufacturer here in Australia. I got the job because I still remember the old Unix 4GL systems...I can go far back if I need. The point being is that it is hard to write software if you are only one or two people doing it, I know from experience. It even gets harder if you're not being paid for doing it and you've got a family to both support and spend time with.So when I said "crawl" my meaning is that I've worked in teams with five or six people at my experience level and we just jammed through the design, coding, unit testing, and rolling the stuff out...being paid to do it. When I work by myself I tend to be more exacting because I don't want to have to revisit stuff if possible. So it simply takes longer to produce a complete app. I wasn't trying to give you a hard time, I was just siding with you that its hard to write such a complex app in a short period of time with limited resources.I for one really like your take on how the thing should work and hope that you continue to soldier on for the benefit of the Flight Simulator community. We need it and I certainly hope everyone appreciates the effort that you're making. So if I didn't say it before, thanks for the cool app and all of the hard work!Mark

It's not about the editors, it's about the files and about not destroying vital elements of (payware) addon sceneries, that were never meant to be edited by anyone other than the developer. From a support perspective it's already not a good idea.

Just to say that as an example one piece of payware I purchased covering nearly 50 airports in Brazil had significant faults in over 25% of its AFD files. Most of these were major enough to prevent AI traffic from landing/parking/taking off - just because you pay for something, it doesn't mean it is perfect. So I personally do not hesitate (at my own risk, of course) in modifying such files.John