Regarding ADE stock airport beacon (Add... -> Beacon) how can I add it anywhere except on ground ?

The way it works now it is simply placed on ground at airport elevation.

 

How can I for example add an object, measure its height and position the beacon on top of it ?

If you are using the beacon cone with the default FSX beacon tower (airport_objects.bgl/gen_beaconbase1) the correct height is 35.4 ft (10.8 meters). You can adjust the beacon cone elevation in ADE using the object edit dialog box. To use the beacon with other objects, finding the correct elevation is probably a trial & error process. If you are using an object placement tool, such as Instant Scenery, you can add the first object, then add the beacon (ex: airport_objects.bgl/gen_beaconland), adjusting the elevation by trial and error. The advantage of this method, as opposed to using ADE to add the beacon, is that you can see the results of your adjustments immediately, without having to reload FSX. Hope this helps

Joepal thak you.

Newbie to scenery design here  B) 

ADE 1.6 with ProKey.

I was using the one that comes from the default menu -> Add... -> Beacon, not the Add...-> Library Object.

The one I added comes without a cone, just the rotating lamp and its placed on ground level without options to amend its height, only Pitch & Bank.

Maybe I'm wrong, I will check the options and revert back.

Kyprianos, when you edit the beacon object in ADE (ADE X v. 1.55) you should get a dialog box with an Altitude adjustment text box near the lower righthand corner of the dialog box. You can enter the desired altitude for the object here. Also note that the "Altitude is AGL" box should be checked and the "User Locked" box should be unchecked. You can also add a standard FSX beacon base by using the Add Library Object function in ADE, and entering "beacontower" in the Find Text search box. Again, I hope this helps.

I managed to elevate the stock beacon with custom elevation, the box was down there, had not identified it :unsure:

Now its just a matter of placing an object below it to support it.

 

By selecting the beacon towers available that you suggested (see pic.) they do not appear in scenery, both with AGL checked and with custom elevation.

I checked all of them.

 

I don't know why the beacon tower objects did not appear in your scenery, assuming they show up in your ADE airport diagram. I can think of three possible reasons why the objects don't show up in FSX. First, your Display/Scenery Complexity option in FSX should be set to a minimum of "Normal", since you have the tower object in ADE set to display at Normal or higher. Or, alternately, you could set the Image Complexity to "Very Sparse" in the tower object dialog box in ADE.

Second, after you compile your afcad file you should check to make sure it appears in your FSX/Addon Scenery folder, unless you added it to another folder. If you have a separate library object file created by ADE, then it should appear there also.

Third,if you are modifying an existing airport you should check your scenery files to make sure there are no other afcad files (other than the default airport) which could be interfering with your custom scenery. Since afcad files generally include the airport code in their titles, you could do a search for the airport code in any FSX addon scenery folders using the Windows search box to see if there are any other afcad files for the same airport.

Furthermore, I am puzzled as to why the default "beacontower01" object does not show up among your ADE library objects when use the search term "beacon". Alternately, if you select the "Tower" category in the Add Library Object dialog box, it should definitely show up there since it is a default FSX library object from the default airport_objects.bgl file. If it doesn't show up in the "Tower" category should check to see if "airport_objects.bgl" is listed in the Library list box of the dialog box. This library file should reside in your Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Scenery\Global\scenery folder. Offhand, I cannot think of any reason it shouldn't show up in ADE. I would include a picture of my Add Library Object dialog box with the beacon tower selected, but I can't get the add image function to work in the Avsim Post Reply box. It just freezes the webpage up completely.

Anyway, the mystery deepens. At least you got the beacon elevated, that's some progress. :smile: