Haven't seen any opinions about the new Airport Studio here on the forum, so here are my impressions from the first hours of use. As a happy ADE user, I wasn't sure what to expect from this new product. Given the low price, decided to give it a go.It is an airport editor like ADE, AFCAD or Flight1's AFX, but it runs inside FSX instead of being a standalone program and pretty much works as advertised. When you load an airport, you see airport elements in FSX - kind of the AFX preview, but fully editable with the mouse, no need to switch back and forth between FSX and the airport editor. Very helpful when you need to take into account buildings, terrain and other 3D stuff when positioning airport elements, especially parkings.There is a small FPS impact when editing the airport (compared with just flying in FSX), but it is still pretty much as smooth as editing the same airport with ADE.What's great:Before moving a parking spot, you can attach any installed aircraft to it, so that you see how an actual parked aicraft would be positioned, not just the parking spot.When using ADE, it gives ADE the single most important feature ADE lacked - a quick preview of the airport in FSX. Now you can load the same airport into ADE and Airport studio, and when you save, airport studio automatically loads the changes and displays them in FSX.Just being able to tweak airport elements from Flight Simulator is very very cool!What's bad:The single biggest problem is the handling of taxiway signs. They depict actual 3D taxiway signs, but sadly, this also means they are pretty much invisible in the top-down view. If you know where exactly they are, it is easy to point with the mouse. If not, you are lost. You can manipulate them from the usual cockpit view, but I find it much less convenient than from the overhead view.The default color selection is not great, especially borders of apron polygons are in a very bland gray color, hard to discern from terrain. But colors can be changed in options, so after changing a few colors I like the color scheme.It's also a pity that they didn't jump on the opportunity to draw actual VASI and ILS beams in the air - obviously this is not needed for airport editing, but would be cool to see this stuff.My verdict:A must have program, the live preview for ADE alone is worth it. But it will not replace your standalone airport editor.

thanks for the review, i didnt even know this was out so i will check it out for myself as well.kyle

Would this program let me add a tower to an uncontrolled airport and maybe define the Class D airspace around it?

Would this program let me add a tower to an uncontrolled airport and maybe define the Class D airspace around it?

No, this program is for visual airport elements only (taxiways, aprons, parkings etc.) It will not let you add frequencies or airspaces. In fact is there *any* program out there to edit airspaces?

I would like to add my thanks for your sneek peek. I have downloaded the package but not cracked it open yet. My ADE has decided to stop working so I want to sort that out first. :(

Thanks for letting us know about this product.It's the first I have heard of it.I downloaded the demo and it certainly seems to work rather well (just like AFX but inside FSX)It still has the terrible problem where runways must be at least 1m wide, I must post a complaint on the F1 forums about this, I'm sick of having to load an airport into ADE just to reduce the runway width so it doesn't mess up my PR textures.One thing I am interested in is the ability to create airport fence lines in FSX, much easier than linking AFX to FSX and then slewing about trying to transfer points from FSX to AFX so I can add in the lines later.I will have to buy the full version soon (not too expensive either at $19,95)

Thanks for letting us know about this product.It's the first I have heard of it.I downloaded the demo and it certainly seems to work rather well (just like AFX but inside FSX)It still has the terrible problem where runways must be at least 1m wide, I must post a complaint on the F1 forums about this, I'm sick of having to load an airport into ADE just to reduce the runway width so it doesn't mess up my PR textures.One thing I am interested in is the ability to create airport fence lines in FSX, much easier than linking AFX to FSX and then slewing about trying to transfer points from FSX to AFX so I can add in the lines later.I will have to buy the full version soon (not too expensive either at $19,95)

i agree, being able to edit from within FSX is a fantastic function, i shall certainly be investing.Tom

No, this program is for visual airport elements only (taxiways, aprons, parkings etc.) It will not let you add frequencies or airspaces. In fact is there *any* program out there to edit airspaces?

How about something simple to update the fuzzy terminal buildings or more modern looking hangars and offices for the FBO? Anything out there for a beginner to do those things. Thanks for the quick overview.Ray

This is a pretty sweet program and I'm finding it very useful since I align runways and taxiways to satellite scenery and never liked bothering with creating airport backgrounds in ADE. Now I can lay out all the airport objects in AS, use Whisplacer for object placement (also live previewed in the sim) and then just have ADE for pathing and stuff.One thing tho - both the demo and retail version refused to open the airport library until I tried about 3-4 times. It would lock up the sim - each time I tried it would get a bit farther in its load bar until the 3-4 try it would open okay and be fine thereafter. Anyone else encounter this issue?

The one major feature which ADE has and Airport Studio (and Airport Facilitator X) do not is the ability to reposition the stock airport buildings which are in the area of an airfield. I purchased AFX a few weeks ago because I wanted to perform some precision airport edits based on photoreal ground scenery, but to my dismay, the program could not move the buildings around. In reading the features of Airport Studio, I do not see this feature listed at all - making me believe it is not contained in the program. I'll be sticking with the very capable ADE, with a lump of cash in my pocket. When you use a georeferenced ground image from SBuilderX as a guide map in ADE, you get very precise positioning capabilities. Yes, its an extra step or two in order to get the image, and no you cannot see what you're doing within the sim itself, but that extra positioning information makes for a great customized airfield! -Greg(PS: If Airport Studio DOES have the ability to reposition stock airport buildings, let me know!)

greggerm try opening the default file in AS, then save as BGL. Now do the same in ADE - open the stock airport and compile it as stock. Now open the AS BGL in ADE (Open Airport from BGL) and then use the Import BGL option to load in objects from the ADE-compiled stock airport. This should bring in all stock buildings/objects and you'll have excludes from the AS BGL that hide the originals.I haven't tested this with a full airport, but when I loaded my ADE-compiled BGL into an airport BGL I opened from AS (that I modified with runway/taxiway alignments over satellite textures) it did bring over the full beacon object and such.Up to you I guess, if this works, whether all the extra compile, load, compile hassle is worth the trouble

The one major feature which ADE has and Airport Studio (and Airport Facilitator X) do not is the ability to reposition the stock airport buildings which are in the area of an airfield. I purchased AFX a few weeks ago because I wanted to perform some precision airport edits based on photoreal ground scenery, but to my dismay, the program could not move the buildings around. In reading the features of Airport Studio, I do not see this feature listed at all - making me believe it is not contained in the program. I'll be sticking with the very capable ADE, with a lump of cash in my pocket. When you use a georeferenced ground image from SBuilderX as a guide map in ADE, you get very precise positioning capabilities. Yes, its an extra step or two in order to get the image, and no you cannot see what you're doing within the sim itself, but that extra positioning information makes for a great customized airfield! -Greg(PS: If Airport Studio DOES have the ability to reposition stock airport buildings, let me know!)

Oh that's interesting. Reading earlier posts I was under the impression that moving buildings was possible. If this is not the case then that puts me off. It would have been nice to position buildings on a photoreal ground image also exported from sbuilderx.I will just have to stick to using sketchup to accurately position my models.Tom

Oh that's interesting. Reading earlier posts I was under the impression that moving buildings was possible.

Nope - you can only modify airport elements, no objects

Nope - you can only modify airport elements, no objects

What happens if you use ADE to move a building, export to .bgl, then use AS to refresh the scenery display. Doesn't AS display the building in it's new position?This would be the ONLY reason I'd even consider buying AS......as having to constantly open/close FSX just to see minor changes is a PITA! :(

The one major feature which ADE has and Airport Studio (and Airport Facilitator X) do not is the ability to reposition the stock airport buildings which are in the area of an airfield. I purchased AFX a few weeks ago because I wanted to perform some precision airport edits based on photoreal ground scenery, but to my dismay, the program could not move the buildings around. In reading the features of Airport Studio, I do not see this feature listed at all - making me believe it is not contained in the program.

Ooops. I just realized how I completely misinterpreted your question!! corkyo4's response cued me in to that.You (and n4gix) will want to look into Whisplacer. It's an object placement tool that can live-preview object placement in FSX. I still find value in Airport Studio since I need to place runways and aprons over satellite textures and it's faster than dealing with a background image setup for each airport.n4gix, you don't need to restart FSX whenever you want to see a scenery change, just open the scenery library window and click OK and it will reload the scenery just like AS' "reload scenery" button does. Still have to wait for the reload though and that's still a bit annoying