World editor (X-Plane)
The World Editor (WED) is a free program used to edit X-plane airport information. This program can be used to edit the information used by SIMbox's Dynamic airport generation system.
The WED program is available from the X-Plane site here.
The following paragraphs contain best-practice suggestions in the use of the WED program. Please review them before using the WED program.
Contents
Initial setup
The WED program prompts you to choose an X-plane folder when it first loads. Simply create a directory called "Custom Scenery" and then point the program to the parent directory of the directory you just created.
Importing existing data
The X-plane airports and runway data is derived from FAA data. Therefor, it is much easier to start from existing data than doing everything from scratch.
Create and open a new package. You can import the X-Plane dat files (Option located under File -> import apt.dat) into the package. However the program does not seem to be able to handle the full size of the X-Plane complete airport data. You can use the XPlaneDataSplitter program, provided in a link below, to split the original X-plane airport data to individual airports then import them on a need-by-need basis.
Preventing accidental changes
Make sure you lock the information after you have imported airport information or finish editing a runway. Otherwise it is very likely you may move the elements in the airport. You can lock element placement through right-hand scenery tree pane.
It is important to lock the following elements: Runways, Light fixtures, airport boundary and airport lights.
Using overlay images
To get an airport that most closely resembles real life you can add a background image from which to work. The best images to use are Geo-Tiff images as they include (within themselves) the location at which they should be displayed.
You can load an image through the View->Pick Overlay Image option. Open the image and move the image down the scenery tree (right pane) so it will be drawn behind all other elements. Then lock its position (again through the scenery tree pane).
User guide
The WED program has a good internal user guide detailing the various elements of the program and the ways to used them. It is recommended you read the user guide before using the program.
Data splitter
The attached program is a command-line program which can be used to split X-Plane airport file into their constituent airports, or to combine them back into a large single file.
