Good tutorial! WED is addictive, especially for local airports. It's cool to know that so many of the X-Plane airports were made with a community effort, and that something you make may end up in the sim.
There are two fly-in communities that really haven’t been built out that I might take a crack at - really neat to see taxiways to homes. That way I can fantasize about living there (or visiting).
Ya gotta love user- generated content when the developer incorporates it democratically without overtly monetizing it. Your two camera angles at the beginning made this video feel 47% more professional!
Pretty neat trick, huh? Before digital editing you would have to use a slate and sync up video or film (which I had to do in film school), but the computer makes it SO simple to do. It's a smart thing on the developers - make people feel invested and do the work for them... a sense of pride and giving back. I ended up having some issues, so someone in the community took my work and rolled with it (though asking first it was okay so they didn't take the credit).
The issue I have had with the satellite imagery is that the FAA data sometimes has been off, by many many meters - so you will go to "fix" the runway and it will be rejected because the two won't correlate - and the FAA data is usually the winner despite clear evidence that it is wrong.
I found that airport I had built finally - then I marveled that I did a really nice job - I want to focus on those small grass strips that are ignored because they can be a lot of fun - though I need to get much better at spotting them.
How smart is it to encourage people to do your work for you and make your product better by becoming invested in the product, and even better, for free!?
Thanks for that. Unfortunately you (and the manual) seem to skip a step. How do I open that regional airport to start editing it? The manual tells you how to open the X-plane folder (scenery package) and you get to the screen with a list of around ten airports (mine are Budapest, London, etc.). But from then I'm stuck. The manual simply says click on a line and it will open. But you end up with a map of the world. Zooming in to the region you want to edit doesn't seem to do anything. Just says 'vertex - no current airport'.
If you are working on an existing airport (which most are, even the built-in generated ones that are basically just the runway and maybe a taxiway), then under File, you select IMPORT FROM SCENERY GATEWAY to retrieve the airport general info. If you are really building from scratch, then you have to define at least that there is an airport (with the airport icon) and its data that it needs, then start building from that.
I must be missing a step. I choose the x-plane folder - it recognises it and loads up the screen with those airports. I can see 'Import from Airport Scenery Gateway' there under file, but it's greyed out. All I can do is 'Open Package' but that sends me to the map of the earth and that doesn't seem to allow me to choose the specific scenery area (and airport) I want to work on.
@@robintyson591 You are. You have to create a package first - Pick new on the FIRST screen you see - make a package (default is UNTITLED but you can change that name). You have to make the folder on that screen to hold your files - this puts it in the custom directory under that name.
Thanks for your patience. It's driving me insane! So I made a NEW scenery package (it's called Untitled1). Then I go to file but still it's greyed out (File - Import from Airport Scenery). If I OPEN that new scenery package I end up (again) with that map of the world and it's a dead end!
Thanks so much, Trinity! I had to modify two airports I landed into just this weekend because they weren't up to XP12 standards (and had used tricks that are no longer necessary) - 30 minutes and they were reuploaded back up to the gateway for everyone to enjoy.
@@dixielandfarm That's Amazing. Your tutorial helped me lay out a small local airfield that we want to use in our simulator. your explanation helped me to do this without any within the same day and before I watched your tutorial I didn't even know what program s to use.
Thanks so much for that Phil! Do a few grass strips to get your bearings and it gets easier and easier - plus it feels good to give back to the XPlane community when you submit one, no matter how simple it is.
OK, I found the answer. To make new folders you highlight whatever items you want from the hierarchy pane. Group them, CTRL + G or pick Group from the edit menu. That will make a folder called Group with a number. Then just change the name of the folder to whatever you want. Hope this helps someone. Sometime answers are difficult to find.
Hey Kris! I watched this video some years ago and it was what it got me started correcting my local airports in XP11, so thanks. I have a question though: is it necessary/advisable to create a new scenery package for every airport we edit? Because I already feel my WED menu a little cluttered and wondered if I could just create a Scenery Package called "my airports" and just import everything from there.
For me, once the airports were in the gateway and pushed out, I just archived mine so I would work on it just if I had to. I did also name things with an indicator of MY name so I knew those were the ones I did, which helped organize it a bit better (Like Kris - 8A7 Twin Lakes) Subfolders won't work, from what I remember.
@@dixielandfarm I see. Most of my airports don't have an accurate gateway counterpart so I guess I'll stick with my custom edited packages for now. Might even upload them after some polishing. Thank you again!
@@defaultytuser Oh yeah, thats what I mean. I submitted mine to the gateway and they were accepted, so they were put into XP so I didnt need to keep mine anymore because they were the default.
I got a bit frustrated with your video because you did things assuming the audience (me) knew how you actually did something. Example: you selected a hanger from the library "and just dropped it in, rotated it, and you're done." How did you drop it in; how did you rotate it; how is your change saved? I've found this with quite a few videos, not just this one, but the WED manual is not intuitive either. Is there a video you can recommend that is better at describing how to use the tools and save your changes?
No. People can't expect to learn an entire craft in 10-15 minutes. They have to do it. The nice thing about a computer program is the likelihood of you messing up by experimenting is very close to zero - and it is one of those things you have to learn by doing. My intent on the video is to introduce people to the idea of making/modifying an airport using the tools that are available - but it isn't meant to be an in-depth tutorial... The manual is absolutely not intuitive, and I have also struggled with submissions being rejected for rules that weren't explicitly laid out as well - the forums have been helpful to a point - but there are a lot of gruff people there as well. To save, hit File/Save. That saves the xml file. But that doesn't generate the artwork to use in X-Plane, for that you have to export scenery which makes that file. To put a piece in, once it is selected, simply mouse over and hit the left mouse button to drop the object (like a building or a tree), or in the case of forests or taxiways, you start making the outline until you connect all the pieces by dropping points with the left button (example, a rectangle is four points, but an oblong/odd shaped could be 20 points). To rotate an object, put it in the cursor mode from the toolbox that shows and click the object, a cross shows up which you can then grab one of the points and it will rotate - harder to write or even show than to just figure out.
There is a setting to smooth the airport elevation, but I can't quite remember what the setting is (I think the term they uses is flattening) - but if you google you will find it. Some people hate using that because they want the slopes to be as realistic as possible - even at a few I have designed, if you went behind the hangar you would see it is actually five feet off the ground in a corner.
The row of hangars, no - but you overlap them so they look longer. But some general building sizes and open hangars, yes - there is a variable of LxWxH that you can change - I do believe it is in meters.
The only issue is I don't have a second monitor, so I can't actually see what I am doing when I do it, so I have to rely on just remembering what I am doing (which actually caught me once).
@@Xbox4Ada Inside WED - its buried in there to draw in the trees, and to pick the right one is tricky. If you mean something else (like trees showing up in the sim where they shouldn't on your scenery), that is because you need to put an exclusion zone in that tells xplane not to spawn autogen in that area.
Can you alter landscapes with this? Because from the city where I'm from, there's a little hill juuuust beside the airport which is also a landmark for us locals and tourists coming in from air travel. Default X-plane does not have that hill and its kind of a bummer.
You can add grass and trees and basically any material on top of the ground, but not the ground contours per se - that is what they call mesh. Default mesh is very simplistic for various reasons (processor, space, etc). There are alternate meshes out there that are much more accurate and will probably have that elevation data - but that mesh is often for a very large area - but I would look into that first and see if that gets you your hill.
I did build a grass strip at the farm, in case I wanted to take off - BUT, it is hard to get them to show up in the GPS in the planes when they aren't real places - easy to take off from, but not find/land using navigation aids. The next challenge is to build houses/etc. - and I have one that I plan on doing - there is a "fly-in" community in Florida that no one has done yet - basically houses attached in a development so you taxi off the runway and into your driveway, which I thought would be cool to actually make.
Ciao, da qualche mese mi sono dedicato a modificare lo scenario della mia città e sono molto soddisfatto del mio lavoro. Ma cè una cosa che non riesco a fare e capire, come si possa cancellare/eliminare qualcosa dallo scenario di default che non corrisponde alla realtà, nè nella posizione che nella forma. Mi potresti, per favore, dare un suggerimento? Grazie! Hello, for a few months now I have been editing the scenery of my city and I am very satisfied with my work. But there is one thing that I can not do and understand, how can I delete/eliminate something from the default scenery that does not correspond to reality, neither in position nor in form. Could you please give me a hint? Thanks!
From the airport or from the outlaying scenery? If the airport, you should be able to import the airport, fix how you want, then export the airport and put in your custom scenery. If you like, you then can share with everyone in the scenery gateway so all can enjoy your work when X-Plane updates (that is what I do). If it is outside the airport, you can submit a bug report and they can fix.
Excellent question - I know you can around an airport - but only the type of terrain - not actually the underlying mesh. As for outside that environment, I don't seen why you couldn't overlay a type of terrain you DO want and just export it as part of the custom scenery, it overwriting what is there by default. Example - 10 miles away from an airport there is a field, but you want to change that texture to gravel instead of grass - that should totally work.
Decent vid dixie. but missing a few things. Many in the sim community are actual pilots both commercial and general aviation, such as myself and fly simulation as a hobby. Many actual flight schools also use x-plane as a training aid. My point here is that doing scenery for upload has to be as accurate as possible. I get from you vid that its all plug and play. Maybe for some, it is just that. But to the community as a whole its much more. I see that you do not mention anything about the Gateway. All in all thanks for your time.
Thanks for watching. Luckily they screen any airports being uploaded before they are folded in for accuracy - and to me the whole point is to make it look like real life - but it is also nice people can use the tool to make their dream airports (I made a grass strip for the farm, just to see my area). The point of the video is that people shouldn't be intimidated and if they see an airport with nothing, they should use the satellite view and try to build it up for all to enjoy (which I have done).
When I first installed XP I had no idea that I would become a scenery developer so to say. But that is what the Org calls people who upload scenery packs. So enjoy the title LoL. It is great fun and helps people to think in 3D terms. Dixie it's not easy to do decent work the learning curve is steep but well worth the effort at least to me. Again thanks for your time and vid
Thanks for watching, Sammy. I have only done that twice, and I am not sure if I did it right - will need to get a little better at it first to see; once I do, I will post something!
@@cptpoland7127 - Ok I just checked again. So easy (and what I wrote) - pick a polygon (mid-bottom right in the toolbar, right above roads), draw your selection, it will probably default to some grass polygon - change in the box = TAXI SURFACE in the right side of the window where your selection is and change to match the texture you want. Done.
Good tutorial! WED is addictive, especially for local airports. It's cool to know that so many of the X-Plane airports were made with a community effort, and that something you make may end up in the sim.
There are two fly-in communities that really haven’t been built out that I might take a crack at - really neat to see taxiways to homes. That way I can fantasize about living there (or visiting).
Ya gotta love user- generated content when the developer incorporates it democratically without overtly monetizing it. Your two camera angles at the beginning made this video feel 47% more professional!
Pretty neat trick, huh? Before digital editing you would have to use a slate and sync up video or film (which I had to do in film school), but the computer makes it SO simple to do. It's a smart thing on the developers - make people feel invested and do the work for them... a sense of pride and giving back. I ended up having some issues, so someone in the community took my work and rolled with it (though asking first it was okay so they didn't take the credit).
It's handy to be able to work off the google maps imagery. I'm going to take a look at that OBS Studio.
The issue I have had with the satellite imagery is that the FAA data sometimes has been off, by many many meters - so you will go to "fix" the runway and it will be rejected because the two won't correlate - and the FAA data is usually the winner despite clear evidence that it is wrong.
Well, you might have just convinced me to play around with WED. Much easier that I thought.
I found that airport I had built finally - then I marveled that I did a really nice job - I want to focus on those small grass strips that are ignored because they can be a lot of fun - though I need to get much better at spotting them.
Would have been nice to show us an existing airport modified - because the process is more convoluted than shown here.
Thanks for watching!
This was so interesting... it should not have been... but it was... That is the Brzysinski magic...
How smart is it to encourage people to do your work for you and make your product better by becoming invested in the product, and even better, for free!?
@@dixielandfarm ...very...
Thanks for that. Unfortunately you (and the manual) seem to skip a step. How do I open that regional airport to start editing it? The manual tells you how to open the X-plane folder (scenery package) and you get to the screen with a list of around ten airports (mine are Budapest, London, etc.). But from then I'm stuck. The manual simply says click on a line and it will open. But you end up with a map of the world. Zooming in to the region you want to edit doesn't seem to do anything. Just says 'vertex - no current airport'.
If you are working on an existing airport (which most are, even the built-in generated ones that are basically just the runway and maybe a taxiway), then under File, you select IMPORT FROM SCENERY GATEWAY to retrieve the airport general info. If you are really building from scratch, then you have to define at least that there is an airport (with the airport icon) and its data that it needs, then start building from that.
I must be missing a step. I choose the x-plane folder - it recognises it and loads up the screen with those airports. I can see 'Import from Airport Scenery Gateway' there under file, but it's greyed out. All I can do is 'Open Package' but that sends me to the map of the earth and that doesn't seem to allow me to choose the specific scenery area (and airport) I want to work on.
@@robintyson591 You are. You have to create a package first - Pick new on the FIRST screen you see - make a package (default is UNTITLED but you can change that name). You have to make the folder on that screen to hold your files - this puts it in the custom directory under that name.
Thanks for your patience. It's driving me insane! So I made a NEW scenery package (it's called Untitled1). Then I go to file but still it's greyed out (File - Import from Airport Scenery). If I OPEN that new scenery package I end up (again) with that map of the world and it's a dead end!
@@robintyson591 I think maybe your CHOOSE XPLANE LOCATION may not be right - it should be the main xplane folder, not any subdirectory.
Thank You, this was a nice tutorial.
Thanks so much, Trinity! I had to modify two airports I landed into just this weekend because they weren't up to XP12 standards (and had used tricks that are no longer necessary) - 30 minutes and they were reuploaded back up to the gateway for everyone to enjoy.
@@dixielandfarm That's Amazing. Your tutorial helped me lay out a small local airfield that we want to use in our simulator. your explanation helped me to do this without any within the same day and before I watched your tutorial I didn't even know what program s to use.
Excellent Tutorial and well explained. Many thanks
Thanks so much for that Phil! Do a few grass strips to get your bearings and it gets easier and easier - plus it feels good to give back to the XPlane community when you submit one, no matter how simple it is.
Do you know how to add folders to the hierarchy pane ( upper right ) to help with organization?
Thank you for this information.
If I recall, it was just right click to make the folder - I did it a few times (but I am at work at the moment, so I might be wrong)...
Let me know if you find out. Right click doesn't seem to do it, unless there's something else you have to do.
Thanks for replying.
OK, I found the answer. To make new folders you highlight whatever items you want from the hierarchy pane. Group them, CTRL + G or pick Group from the edit menu. That will make a folder called Group with a number. Then just change the name of the folder to whatever you want.
Hope this helps someone. Sometime answers are difficult to find.
Hey Kris! I watched this video some years ago and it was what it got me started correcting my local airports in XP11, so thanks. I have a question though: is it necessary/advisable to create a new scenery package for every airport we edit? Because I already feel my WED menu a little cluttered and wondered if I could just create a Scenery Package called "my airports" and just import everything from there.
For me, once the airports were in the gateway and pushed out, I just archived mine so I would work on it just if I had to. I did also name things with an indicator of MY name so I knew those were the ones I did, which helped organize it a bit better (Like Kris - 8A7 Twin Lakes) Subfolders won't work, from what I remember.
@@dixielandfarm I see. Most of my airports don't have an accurate gateway counterpart so I guess I'll stick with my custom edited packages for now. Might even upload them after some polishing. Thank you again!
@@defaultytuser Oh yeah, thats what I mean. I submitted mine to the gateway and they were accepted, so they were put into XP so I didnt need to keep mine anymore because they were the default.
Nice job Kris.
Thanks, Julian! Guess where I'm going this week?
@@dixielandfarm Does it begin with D???
Why yes, it does! :)
dixielandfarm Have a great time 😊 we will look forward to the vlogs!
I got a bit frustrated with your video because you did things assuming the audience (me) knew how you actually did something. Example: you selected a hanger from the library "and just dropped it in, rotated it, and you're done." How did you drop it in; how did you rotate it; how is your change saved? I've found this with quite a few videos, not just this one, but the WED manual is not intuitive either. Is there a video you can recommend that is better at describing how to use the tools and save your changes?
No. People can't expect to learn an entire craft in 10-15 minutes. They have to do it. The nice thing about a computer program is the likelihood of you messing up by experimenting is very close to zero - and it is one of those things you have to learn by doing. My intent on the video is to introduce people to the idea of making/modifying an airport using the tools that are available - but it isn't meant to be an in-depth tutorial... The manual is absolutely not intuitive, and I have also struggled with submissions being rejected for rules that weren't explicitly laid out as well - the forums have been helpful to a point - but there are a lot of gruff people there as well. To save, hit File/Save. That saves the xml file. But that doesn't generate the artwork to use in X-Plane, for that you have to export scenery which makes that file. To put a piece in, once it is selected, simply mouse over and hit the left mouse button to drop the object (like a building or a tree), or in the case of forests or taxiways, you start making the outline until you connect all the pieces by dropping points with the left button (example, a rectangle is four points, but an oblong/odd shaped could be 20 points). To rotate an object, put it in the cursor mode from the toolbox that shows and click the object, a cross shows up which you can then grab one of the points and it will rotate - harder to write or even show than to just figure out.
Thank you, very useful information, I have one question, how I can flatten the ground under my Apron
There is a setting to smooth the airport elevation, but I can't quite remember what the setting is (I think the term they uses is flattening) - but if you google you will find it. Some people hate using that because they want the slopes to be as realistic as possible - even at a few I have designed, if you went behind the hangar you would see it is actually five feet off the ground in a corner.
@@dixielandfarm ok, thanks, I'll try to find it
Can you change the hangar and building sizes? I can't find any reference for that, and have tried everything that would be sensible, but no ...
The row of hangars, no - but you overlap them so they look longer. But some general building sizes and open hangars, yes - there is a variable of LxWxH that you can change - I do believe it is in meters.
OBS is great I did my first live stream with it over the weekend.
The only issue is I don't have a second monitor, so I can't actually see what I am doing when I do it, so I have to rely on just remembering what I am doing (which actually caught me once).
Where did you get the map into the background
There is an option called View Slippy Map that adds that so you can use it to work from. I think I show it in the video where you turn it on.
@@dixielandfarm Thanks, and one more question is: How did you get the forests to work? I can't find the correct resource :(
@@Xbox4Ada Inside WED - its buried in there to draw in the trees, and to pick the right one is tricky. If you mean something else (like trees showing up in the sim where they shouldn't on your scenery), that is because you need to put an exclusion zone in that tells xplane not to spawn autogen in that area.
@@dixielandfarm ok thanks! Your right though, it is hard to find the right tree 😅
Can you alter landscapes with this? Because from the city where I'm from, there's a little hill juuuust beside the airport which is also a landmark for us locals and tourists coming in from air travel.
Default X-plane does not have that hill and its kind of a bummer.
You can add grass and trees and basically any material on top of the ground, but not the ground contours per se - that is what they call mesh. Default mesh is very simplistic for various reasons (processor, space, etc). There are alternate meshes out there that are much more accurate and will probably have that elevation data - but that mesh is often for a very large area - but I would look into that first and see if that gets you your hill.
Hello. I started to make a scenery on WED, and does the scenery that is from gateway not have any problems with copyright?
No, you are free to update, modify, improve anything on the gateway.
Thanks! Very informative. I’m curious: are you flying xplane on Linux?
That is correct - using Linux the whole way! :)
It Saya that it's not a part of xplane when I upload the airport scenery
Check the forums for help. The program can be fickle.
@@dixielandfarm which forums and where
@@cpdudeyt forums.x-plane.org
That's pretty cool, Kris. Have you ever built a totally custom one not based on an existing airport?
I did build a grass strip at the farm, in case I wanted to take off - BUT, it is hard to get them to show up in the GPS in the planes when they aren't real places - easy to take off from, but not find/land using navigation aids. The next challenge is to build houses/etc. - and I have one that I plan on doing - there is a "fly-in" community in Florida that no one has done yet - basically houses attached in a development so you taxi off the runway and into your driveway, which I thought would be cool to actually make.
Ciao, da qualche mese mi sono dedicato a modificare lo scenario della mia città e sono molto soddisfatto del mio lavoro. Ma cè una cosa che non riesco a fare e capire, come si possa cancellare/eliminare qualcosa dallo scenario di default che non corrisponde alla realtà, nè nella posizione che nella forma. Mi potresti, per favore, dare un suggerimento? Grazie!
Hello, for a few months now I have been editing the scenery of my city and I am very satisfied with my work. But there is one thing that I can not do and understand, how can I delete/eliminate something from the default scenery that does not correspond to reality, neither in position nor in form. Could you please give me a hint? Thanks!
From the airport or from the outlaying scenery? If the airport, you should be able to import the airport, fix how you want, then export the airport and put in your custom scenery. If you like, you then can share with everyone in the scenery gateway so all can enjoy your work when X-Plane updates (that is what I do). If it is outside the airport, you can submit a bug report and they can fix.
I have a question, can I edit terrain using WED?
Excellent question - I know you can around an airport - but only the type of terrain - not actually the underlying mesh. As for outside that environment, I don't seen why you couldn't overlay a type of terrain you DO want and just export it as part of the custom scenery, it overwriting what is there by default. Example - 10 miles away from an airport there is a field, but you want to change that texture to gravel instead of grass - that should totally work.
Decent vid dixie. but missing a few things. Many in the sim community are actual pilots both commercial and general aviation, such as myself and fly simulation as a hobby. Many actual flight schools also use x-plane as a training aid. My point here is that doing scenery for upload has to be as accurate as possible. I get from you vid that its all plug and play. Maybe for some, it is just that. But to the community as a whole its much more. I see that you do not mention anything about the Gateway. All in all thanks for your time.
Thanks for watching. Luckily they screen any airports being uploaded before they are folded in for accuracy - and to me the whole point is to make it look like real life - but it is also nice people can use the tool to make their dream airports (I made a grass strip for the farm, just to see my area). The point of the video is that people shouldn't be intimidated and if they see an airport with nothing, they should use the satellite view and try to build it up for all to enjoy (which I have done).
When I first installed XP I had no idea that I would become a scenery developer so to say. But that is what the Org calls people who upload scenery packs. So enjoy the title LoL. It is great fun and helps people to think in 3D terms. Dixie it's not easy to do decent work the learning curve is steep but well worth the effort at least to me. Again thanks for your time and vid
how to add papi lights to existing airports?
You should be able to define what lights the runway has in the list on the right side of WED, then add them.
Can you please give a tutorial in creating a airport from scratch, meaning the airport is not on xplane
Thanks for watching, Sammy. I have only done that twice, and I am not sure if I did it right - will need to get a little better at it first to see; once I do, I will post something!
hey how do uyou add aprons to it
Add a ground texture or polygon and pick the matching asphalt for it.
i am but it only shows the orange transparent box
@@dixielandfarm
@@cptpoland7127 - Ok I just checked again. So easy (and what I wrote) - pick a polygon (mid-bottom right in the toolbar, right above roads), draw your selection, it will probably default to some grass polygon - change in the box = TAXI SURFACE in the right side of the window where your selection is and change to match the texture you want. Done.
Just wondering...can you use WED for FSX?
You cannot.