Infinite Flight Airport Editing Guide IFAE Beginners

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING

Beginner’s Guide

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Infinite Flight Airport Editing ......................................................................................................................... 4

Getting Started ................................................................................................................................................ 5

Important Vocabulary ................................................................................................................................ 5

Useful Links ................................................................................................................................................. 6

Airport Editing Infos ............................................................................................................................... 6

Airport Information ................................................................................................................................ 6

Signing Up .................................................................................................................................................... 7

Required Accounts ..................................................................................................................................... 7

GitHub ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

Slack .......................................................................................................................................................... 8

Required Downloads .................................................................................................................................. 9

World Editor (WED) by Laminar Research .......................................................................................... 9

Airport Repository ................................................................................................................................ 10

SASPlanet ............................................................................................................................................... 10

WED-o-Maker ........................................................................................................................................ 10

GitHub Desktop (optional) .................................................................................................................. 11

Setup ........................................................................................................................................................... 11

Organized Folder Structure ................................................................................................................ 11

WED ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

SASPlanet ............................................................................................................................................... 12

WED-o-Maker ........................................................................................................................................ 12

The First Airport ............................................................................................................................................ 13

Preparations .............................................................................................................................................. 13

Check Satellite Images ......................................................................................................................... 13

Check GitHub and Get Assigned ........................................................................................................ 13

Import apt.dat or Create a New Airport ........................................................................................... 14

Download Satellite Images ................................................................................................................. 15

Airport Editing ........................................................................................................................................... 18

Basic WED tools .................................................................................................................................... 18

Airport Settings and Equipment......................................................................................................... 21

Runways and Helipads, PAPIs and VASIs .......................................................................................... 23

Nodes ..................................................................................................................................................... 27

Snapping ................................................................................................................................................ 29

Taxiways and Buildings ....................................................................................................................... 31

Lines and Lights .................................................................................................................................... 32

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Spawns ................................................................................................................................................... 36

Airport export ............................................................................................................................................ 39

Troubleshooting........................................................................................................................................ 39

Transparent/Invisible Taxiways .......................................................................................................... 39

Wrongly Orientated Lines and Lights ................................................................................................ 40

Failing Airport Export ........................................................................................................................... 41

Reviewing Process .................................................................................................................................... 41

#peer-review ......................................................................................................................................... 41

Official Review ....................................................................................................................................... 42

ILS Adjustments After Review ................................................................................................................. 42

Airport Editing Checklist............................................................................................................................... 43

WED Shortcuts ............................................................................................................................................... 44

Menus ......................................................................................................................................................... 44

File ........................................................................................................................................................... 44

Edit .......................................................................................................................................................... 44

View ........................................................................................................................................................ 44

Select ...................................................................................................................................................... 44

Airport .................................................................................................................................................... 44

Tools ........................................................................................................................................................... 44

Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. 45

Image Sources ........................................................................................................................................... 45

Disclaimer ...................................................................................................................................................... 46

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... 46

Team ............................................................................................................................................................... 46

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING

Have you ever wondered why airports in Infinite Flight by Flying Development Studio look how they

look? Who helped Laura and the others to add lines years ago? Who made the layouts of San

Francisco, Saint Marten and Amsterdam change? Who extended the runway length at Birmingham?

It’s the work of the editors in the Infinite Flight Airport Editing Team! Since the launch of global was

announced back in 2016, the group is constantly growing – many users wanted to edit their favorite

aiports or their home airport for global release scheduled for 2017. Many people stayed with the

team after their wish list was done and continued with airports they had never heard of before to

contribute to everyone’s experience in Infinite Flight of the future. You’ve probably already seen

them on the Infinite Flight Community in the Infinite Flight Global Airport Tracking Thread.

Do you also have a local airport or a wish list of airports you want to see in Infinite Flight? You can

join the Infinite Flight Airport Editing as well! If you don’t know what skills and what software you

need, this is the document you need to read! It will cover the entire editing process from the

moment you apply until your airports are present in Infinite Flight.

Once you finished reading this and you are sure you want to become an Infinite Flight Airport Editor

apply by mailing us at:

contact@airportediting.com

Alternatively, you can also use the form on our website.

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

GETTING STARTED

Once you join Infinite Flight Airport Editing, you will need to learn lots of new things to become a

successful editor. It is totally normal that the first airport is not a masterpiece; however, the better

you read this tutorial and check other sources listed in this script, the higher the quality of your

first airports and the less disappointments will occur. Don’t forget that everyone involved in Airport

Editing will happily support you if you have any questions. You will learn more on how to get

support and answers later in this tutorial.

IMPORTANT VOCABULARY

In this tutorial, you will come across lots of wordings you may not have heard before. To help you

understand the explanations given more easily, you can find a list with frequently used “Editing

Vocabulary” below.

Word

Synonyms

Meaning

Node

Vertex (pl. vertices)

Fix points used to form lines and polygons in

WED

Overcurving

“Cosmetic” issue with curved lines causing

unrealistic shapes.

Spawn

Ramp start

Object in WED that is used to set the start

location for aircraft in IF

Snap(ping)

Practice to connect nodes of taxiways and

lines to avoid gaps

Orthophoto

Image with coordinate information to

position it in WED for editing

Repo

repository

Location of all IF airport files on GitHub

Issue Tracker

GitHub page where the progress on airports

is documented and tracked

Scenery Package

Folder that can be created and opened in

WED to edit the airport in

apt.dat

Airport file

File used to save the airport for Infinite Flight

once it’s completed

ICAO code/identifier

Airport code,

airport identifier

Unique code used to identify all major

airports in the world

.kml file

File containing geographic data e.g.

coordinates for orthophotos

AGL

Height,

“Above ground level”

Height or elevation above the ground, used

e.g. for tower height

MSL

Elevation,

“Mean sea level”

Elevation of e.g. the airport above the sea

level (=0 ft MSL)

Isle of Man

English Channel

Island located in the English Channel,

sometimes said to be in the Irish Sea

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

USEFUL LINKS

Apart from this main tutorial on Infinite Flight Airport Editing, the web offers loads of information

on Airport Editing. You can find links to the main official sources below.

AIRPORT EDITING INFOS

Find information on airport editing and additional tutorials at:

www.airportediting.com Our official website, offering all tutorials available

Visit our YouTube channel Helpful tutorial videos on several topics

Visit us on Instagram Follow our progress, new airports are posted regularly

AIRPORT INFORMATION

To find information on airport facts and figures, we recommend these websites:

www.worldaerodata.com www.apxp.info

www.aircharts.org www.airnav.com (US and Canada only)

www.rocketroute.com www.gcmap.com

www.opennav.com www.flightplandatabase.com/tools

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

SIGNING UP

Once you come to the conclusion that you want to volunteer as an Airport Editor, the first step you

take is sending an email to contact@airportediting.com. This mail doesn’t need to be a detailed

application you would submit for a job offer at Airbus, Boeing, Google or wherever you would like

to work, but we would ask you to at least include the following:

• Subject, e.g. Join request, Infinite Flight Airport Editing

• A short text stating that you want to become part of the team, don’t send empty mails, that

may get you a reply like “What do you want me to tell?” or, even worse, no reply at all (the

people managing our inbox may be veteran editors but they can’t find out your intentions

by looking at an empty screen)

Things you may include additionally:

• Your user name on the Infinite Flight Community

• Your GitHub user name in case you already have one

This information will help us to make you a member with all abilities quicker and may also help us

to find out who you are. It doesn’t happen very frequently, but in very rare cases we may restrict

access to the team if it turns out you are known for unruly behavior on the IFC.

Some important things you may want to consider before joining:

Even though the Editing Team consists of numerous nationalities and individuals speaking a wide

range of languages, a good command of English is recommended. You may get help by some

editors that are fluent in your mother language, especially if you speak German or Spanish;

however, you will almost certainly get your review results after submitting an airport in English.

Furthermore, the main language used in our conversations is English.

Once you have applied via mail, it may take some days until you get a reply. In extreme cases, it

may take us up to 7 days to reply, but usually a reviewer will handle your request within a few days.

Weekends are the best time to contact us since our reviewers are very active during this time of

the week.

As soon as your reply is handled, you will get an email including some information on tutorials and

software as well as some setup instructions. Additionally, you will get an invitation link to our group

chat. All steps explained in the email are also covered in this document.

REQUIRED ACCOUNTS

In addition to our welcoming email, we will also invite you to join our Slack group. In case you

included a GitHub user name, you will get an invitation to our organization as well, if not, you are

asked to create an account in the setup process and to inform a supervisor about the user name

in a private message.

GITHUB

Infinite Flight Airport Editing uses GitHub to organize and store airport files accessible for all

members. Moreover, team members can create issues and are assigned to them to keep track of

who is doing which airports. To create an account on GitHub visit github.com. If you already own

an account, all you need to do is tell us your username, either in the application email/form or in a

private message to a supervisor after joining us on Slack. If you didn’t own an account before

joining Airport Editing, create one and let us know your user name. Either way, you will get an

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

invitation to our GitHub organization granting you read access. This is needed so supervisors can

assign you to issues and so reviewers can tag you once they upload your airport to the repo.

GENERAL RULES

• Don’t share the link to the GitHub repository. There were several occasions where outside

users messed up the issue tracker requiring a cleanup by supervisors afterwards.

• Always search before creating an issue, we don’t want to have duplicates since GitHub

doesn’t allow for issues being deleted.

• You may only be assigned to three issues at a time. This will be enforced by supervisors.

• Don’t close issues unless you are a supervisor. In case you want to give up on an issue,

comment it in the issue and our staff will take care of your request. Having the airport sent

for review is also no reason to close an issue.

• Don’t work on Airports with a closed issue nor create a new one to update the airport.

Always ask a supervisor to reopen an issue for an airport requiring updates and provide a

good reason for additional work on the completed airport (e.g. new terminal was built, new

runway was built, runway was extended/ closed etc.) Airports won’t be reviewed if the issue

is closed or if no issue exists.

SLACK

Slack is our way to communicate with each other. As soon as we welcome you, you will get an email

inviting you to our Slack group chat. All members are asked to join the group. Slack is your place

to go for questions regarding editing, feedback on your airports and much more. As a member,

you will be able to join the public channels and to start private conversations with other members.

Slack will also be the place where we manage the number of members in the team. We don’t

require editors to edit one airport per week but we ask for a certain level of activity. From time to

time you will see announcements asking you to react in a limited period of time so we can remove

inactive members. To make recognizing you easier it is recommended that your Slack username is

similar to the GitHub one. You can still set a different display name.

You can use Slack in your browser or you can download the app for PC, Mac OS and your

Smartphone.

GENERAL RULES

• Basic rules for conversations apply. We do not have a strict “only G rated content” policy

active nor do we generally restrict controversial topics, however, all conversations should

be held in a civilized manner. Failure to follow this basic rule will be dealt with on a case by

case basis. Posts insulting other team members may be subject to removal by supervisors.

• Be active regularly to check the chat for news and announcements, also regarding editing

rules.

• Try to use the different channels (see next chapter) for the topics they are created for.

• Don’t share internal conversations with non-editors.

• Main language used in the team is English. All editors are asked to chat in English in public

channels. If you want to have a conversation in your mother language with other people,

use direct messages or group chats.

• Please use the Deletron App at www.slackdeletron.com to clear storage regularly (at the

latest we will ask you to do so in #announcements). We use a free plan and only have 5GB

of storage available for our team.

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CHANNELS

The Slack chat consists of several public channels with different purposes. Try to use the right

channel whenever you start a public conversation.

#announcements

This channel is used by Airport Editing supervisors to announce new or

changed editing rules, new software or tutorials and for administrative

announcements e.g. removal of inactive members.

#discussion

All general questions on editing (e.g. “which line type should be used

here?”) go here.

#peer-review

Once your airport is completed you can upload it here to get a review

by other members. This can help avoid rejections in the official review.

Find more details on this channel in the chapter on the review process.

#sas

If you are unable to get accurate satellite imagery for your airport,

request your airport here to get help from other members. Further

details are located in the “SASPlanet” chapter.

#tracking

All activities on GitHub are posted by a bot here.

#off-topic

All conversations not related to editing go here, from aviation news to

that cute cat picture you want to show your fellow editors.

#github-names

This channel may be in use whenever inactive members are about to

be removed. Comment your GitHub user name so we know who will

remain in the GitHub team.

Be careful when uploading/using important files and messages in Slack chats: Since our team is

running on a free Slack plan, only the latest 10000 messages will be displayed. Older messages will

be archieved automatically. As long as we don’t upgrade our team, these messages won’t be

accessible for us so don’t use Slack as a kind of online storage but download crucial files when you

get them, so they don’t get lost.

REQUIRED DOWNLOADS

Apart from lots of time you also need some programs for airport editing. All programs we use are

free and can be downloaded online.

WORLD EDITOR (WED) BY LAMINAR RESEARCH

World Editor is the core software for our project. WED is the program you use to edit the airports

with. The program is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. The software is available at

http://developer.x-plane.com/tools/worldeditor/ as a .zip download. Always download the latest

stable version.

HOW CAN I GET HELP QUICKLY WHEN NO OTHER EDITOR IS UP?

Type /i-need-help in any channel on Slack and all of our tutorials will be linked.

Type /airport-info to get links to airport info websites

QUICK TIP

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

AIRPORT REPOSITORY

The airport repository “the repo” is

our airport database. The airports

are saved as .dat files which can be

opened with World Editor. Since

we highly recommend to import

the existing airport files for editing,

you need to download a copy of

the repository on Github or using

GitHub Desktop. You may want to

update your download every now

and then to have the latest

versions of airports on your hard

drive. To download a .zip copy of

the repo go to “code” page of the

Airport Editing GitHub team and click on “Clone or Download” then select “Download ZIP”. Unzip

the folder to you Airport Editing folder after the download is done. If you are using GitHub Desktop,

select “Open in Desktop”.

SASPLANET

You may already have

wondered how editors are able

to create accurate airports. The

answer is simple: We use

software that provides

orthophotos for import into

WED. Our preferred software is

SASPlanet. This program is

capable of exporting ortho-

photos as well as their

respective coordinates from various sources like Google Earth, Bing or Yandex Maps in selectable

quality. SASPlanet is only available for Windows and Linux unfortunately. MacOS users can either

use the software “WED-o-Maker” or request SAS orthophotos in the #sas channel (recommended).

To download SASPlanet, search for “SASPlanet Nightly” using google. The first result should show

“Nightly – SASGIS”. Selecting this result will lead you to a page where SAS is downloaded

automatically as a .7z file which can be opened using programs like 7-zip (available at www.7-

zip.org).

WED-O-MAKER

In case you are a Mac user and you want to use WED-o-Maker, you need to know that WED-o-Maker

only has Bing maps and that it tends to be outdated. In contrast to SASPlanet, WED-o-Maker will

import imagery directly into WED. To use WED-o-Maker you will furthermore need Java installed

on your computer. The software can be downloaded online from a google drive page linked at

https://wedomaker.wordpress.com/download/ and comes in a .zip file.

Picture 1: Downloading the repo through github.com

Picture 2: Download Page for SASPlanet Nightly

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GITHUB DESKTOP (OPTIONAL)

As mentioned in the repository download chapter, you can also get your copy of the airport

repository using the GitHub desktop app. It’s available at www.desktop.github.com. The program

is optional if you are a normal editor. Once you are granted pull access, meaning you can submit

your airports to the repo without review, GitHub Desktop is needed so you can sync your changes

to the repo.

SETUP

After downloading all necessary software, it’s time to set everything up for editing. Most of the

programs you downloaded are stored in .zip or .7z files and only need to be unpacked. Several

require a special setup nevertheless.

ORGANIZED FOLDER STRUCTURE

A helpful tip to keep your Airport

Editing files at one place is creating a

folder for it on your desktop. Since we

don’t ask you to download a demo

version of X-Plane you even need a

special folder structure required by

WED.

We recommend that everyone

creates a folder called “Airport

Editing” or whatever you want it to be

named. In this folder, you must create

two folders which are called “Custom Scenery” and “Resources”. Correct spelling is important here

since these will be the folders WED is going to work with. Apart from that you can also save the

unzipped folders for SAS, the repo and programs like WED or GitHub Desktop here. A folder for

SAS imagery can be handy as well.

WED

The setup of WED is easy. Once the

download is completed, extract the .zip

folder to your “Airport Editing” folder.

Windows should be able to do that,

otherwise you’ll need 7-zip or a similar

program. For easy access, you can pull

WED.exe out of the folder. The rest of the

folder is not needed and can be deleted.

To complete the setup of WED, open the

program. You will be asked to “pick your

X-System folder”. Click on “Select X-Plane

Folder” in the lower right and navigate to

your “Airport Editing” folder that contains

the “Resources” and the “Custom

Scenery” folders. After that, WED is ready for

use and you can create your first scenery package.

Picture 3: Typical Airport Editing Folder Structure

Picture 4: WED's appearance when opening it for the first time

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

SASPLANET

The setup of SASPlanet is quite easy as well. However,

you won’t be able to extract the .7z file you

downloaded without 7-zip, WinRAR or similar

programs. To extract the file, right click the .7z folder

and select 7-zip – Extract files. You can then select a

place, preferably your Airport Editing folder, where

SAS should be extracted to. Once this is done you can

open that folder and create a shortcut to the

SASPlanet Application in your Airport Editing folder so

that you can access it more easily. SAS is ready for use

from that point, no further installations are necessary. To keep your satellite image supply up to

date it is recommended that you get a new version of SAS every now and then.

Once an image source like Google Earth/ Maps updates its images it doesn’t take too long until a

new SAS version is available. Simply extract the new folder to your Airport Editing folder again,

copy the name of the old folder, delete the old one and name the new one after the deleted one

and your shortcut will work again with the updated version.

WED-O-MAKER

To get WED-o-Maker running on

your computer, all that you need

to do is unzip the .zip folder the

program comes in. If your

computer has Java installed, the

program will be launched in your

browser after a double click on the

.jar file (startup may take some

moments). The program will ask

you for your X-Plane folder in the

upper left corner. Enter the

directory of your Airport Editing

folder where your “Custom Scenery” folder is located in there. You should then be able to choose

the scenery packs you already created in WED in that bar.

Picture 5: Extracting the SASPlanet .7z folder

Picture 6: Landing page of WED-o-maker on first launch. Arrow indicates

where the directory of the Airport Editing folder has to be inserted

HOW DO I GET MY AIRPORT FOLDER DIRECTORY EASILY?

Windows: To get the directory of a folder easily just do a left-click in the folder directory shown

in the top bar of the folder. The directory will then be shown as a text and can be copied

instantly.

Mac OS: Access the folder and hit command+i. The appearing window shows the directory in

a visual way at “Where:” (e.g. User-Mark-Airport). Select that directory with your mouse and

copy it (command+c). The directory will be posted in the correct form when hitting

command+v.

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QUICK TIP

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THE FIRST AIRPORT

Congratulations! You are ready to edit your first airport for Infinite Flight! The following chapter will

tell you how to do so starting with the preparations necessary before the editing process itself,

followed by the editing part and a troubleshooting chapter containing tips on the most frequent

issues.

PREPARATIONS

Before editing can start, there is still some work to do: satellite images need to be checked and

downloaded, GitHub has to be checked and some more things. The following chapter explains the

steps that are missing for a successful first airport.

CHECK SATELLITE IMAGES

So, you selected the airport you want to start your editing career with? Ideally, you already know

the ICAO or FAA identifier next to the airport name and maybe you already collected data like the

airport elevation or the ATC frequencies. Perfect! However, there is one thing you should have a

look at before you open an issue on GitHub – the satellite images available for the airport. Open

SAS or WED-o-maker and navigate to your desired airport. If you are using SAS you can choose

from various maps. Construction sites, outdated imagery and low image quality can make editing

quite hard, especially for a new editor. If your desired airport has low quality imagery and/or

significant construction sites impeding editing in SAS or WED-o-Maker, consider postponing the

airport to a later date when more recent or higher quality imagery may be available to avoid

frustration and/or unassigning.

CHECK GITHUB AND GET ASSIGNED

Once you checked the available imagery,

your next step is visiting GitHub. As

stated in the very beginning of this

tutorial, every editor must announce

once he starts working on an airport. To

avoid duplicate issues, always search

before you create a new issue. Someone

else may already have created a

suggestion for your airport. To search all

issues in our GitHub repository, navigate

to the issue page of the “Airports”

repository and use the search bar (only

available in the desktop version of

GitHub.com, there is no search bar in the

mobile view). Type in the ICAO identifier

and run the search. You will then see a list of all open issues with the ICAO code you entered. Also

check the “Closed” section in the results. An airport will be listed there if it has been redone already.

In case it is listed as “open”, check the labels attached to the issue.

Picture 7: The issue tracker - use the search bar indicated by the arrow

to search for the identifier of your airport. Use the "Labels" button to

only show airports with certain labels.

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Labels are added to issues by supervisors. They show the progress and priorities of airports. You

can also access airports with certain labels via the “Labels” button right next to the search bar on

the issue tracker. If an airport is labeled as “Being Redone”, another editor is already working on

the airport. If one label says “Suggestion”, no one is working on it and you can leave a comment in

the issue stating that you want to work on the airport.

If your search for the airport code didn’t show any results, you can create a new issue for the airport

by hitting the green “New Issue” button in the upper right. Enter the airport code as the issue title

and state that you want to do the airport in the comment. If the airport has a runway with a length

of 10,000 feet or above, also add this in the comment so the issue can be labeled correctly. A

supervisor will assign you as soon as possible if you are within the limit for assignments at this

time and will add the required labels.

IMPORT APT.DAT OR CREATE A NEW AIRPORT

Once you are assigned you can proceed with launching WED. Hit the “New Scenery Package” button

in the lower left. WED will add a new Scenery Package to the list. You can name it instantly by typing

something without clicking on anything before. If the Scenery Pack is saved as “Untitled 1” initially,

you can rename it by double-clicking/selecting and clicking on it. Enter a name that allows you to

identify the airport, so use something like the identifier or the name. Once you have more than

one scenery package, WED orders them alphabetically.

To open the scenery package and start with your airport select the scenery pack with a single left-

click on the scenery pack in the list and hit “Open Scenery Package” at the bottom of the WED

window. The program will then open the editing window. Go to “File”- “Import apt.dat” (Ctrl+Shift+i)

and access your “Airports” folder you downloaded from GitHub and find your airport by its

identifier. The search bar in the folder window is very helpful for this task. Enter the folder with the

correct identifier and open the “apt.dat”-file.

At this point, there are three different scenarios that can apply to your airport:

1. You can import a basic airport from the repo

2. You can import an empty airport file with the airport coordinates from the repo. The folders

of these airports are marked with “[-]”

3. You have to create an entirely new airport

If the last scenario applies, you won’t get any results in the “Airports” folder. However, this is very

rare and only applies to a small number of airports (mainly tiny GA airports and brand-new

airports). To start your airport, go to “Airport”- “Create Airport” (Ctrl+Shift+i). A new, empty airport

will be added, named “unnamed entity”. You will have to add all information needed (including the

identifier and the airport name) manually later.

MY AIRPORT DOESN’T HAVE AN IDENTIFIER. WHAT CAN I DO?

Unfortunately, our repository only features airports that have an ICAO code or a FAA code.

Airports without an identifier are usually of a very low priority (tiny airstrips for private aviation

and similar). They cannot be added to our airport repository and won’t be added to Infinite

Flight consequently. Airports with a certain priority will have ICAO codes anyway.

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QUICK TIP

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If one of the first scenarios applies, you will be able to import an airport file. A popup in the style

of World Editor will open where the airport name is shown. Select the name and hit “Import”. The

airport will either contain some generic taxiways (Scenario 1) or only a windsock called “Airfield

Center” (Scenario 2). Usually, all airports are done from scratch when they have not been edited by

another editor already, so you may want to delete all features apart from the runways (they contain

some information we can use already) by selecting them or the groups they are in and hitting the

“Del” key.

DOWNLOAD SATELLITE IMAGES

With your airport file imported in WED, you can now download the satellite images you will use to

create the airport with. As a user of Windows, you can utilize both, SASPlanet and WED-o-maker.

SASPlanet is the recommended program however. As a Mac user, you can only use WED-o-maker

on your computer.

SASPLANET

The download of satellite images via SASPlanet might be a bit more difficult than importing it with

WED-o-Maker. While WED-o-Maker loads Bing images directly into WED, SASPlanet allows you to

choose the area you want to load freely, offers various image sources but has to be imported

manually into World Editor.

After opening SASPlanet, navigate to the airport you need images as you would do in a normal map

program like Google Maps or Google Earth. Either enter the airport name in the search bar or

navigate to it manually using your mouse. If you are using the search bar at the top of the SAS

window, you can choose which search engine you want to use for finding your airport in the

dropdown next to the search bar. Once you have found your airport, you need to check which

image source provides the most recent images with the best image quality. You can choose from

several sources at the dropdown menu in the toolbar. Google Earth, bing and Yandex usually offer

images for most of the places around the world. Other images may be available at certain places.

Once you have found an appropriate image source, choose the selection tool and select the airport.

You can either select the airport in a rectangular selection or in a polygonal selection. To reduce

the image size, you should rather use the polygonal selection, where you can create a free shape

around the airport by clicking around the airport. Change the selection type by clicking on the little

arrow next to the selection tool.

HOW CAN I USE SASPLANET IMAGERY AS A MAC USER?

Users of Apple computers are not lost with WED-o-maker as their only image source. Since

SASPlanet generates normal image files and coordinate files, Windows users can send you

images generated with SASPlanet via Slack! Just request your airport in #sas and inform the

other editors about the picture quality you want and the approx. file size your WED can handle

(see the SASPlanet chapter below for more information on the maximum image size)

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Picture 8: (1) Search Bar, (2) Source Selection, (3) Selection Tool

1

2

3

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

When the selection is completed, click the green check mark in the appearing popup window and

a new popup will appear after a few seconds.

The popup is called “Selection Manager”. The first

step to take in this popup is starting the download

of the images. Therefore, go to the “Download” tab

(the tab should usually be the open tab when the

popup appears) and select the zoom level you want

to download in the list on the right. You should at

least download images at zoom level 19, rather use

20 or 21 for very high image quality. Please note

that a high image quality results in a high file size

which might impact the speed and performance of

World Editor during editing. To start the download,

hit “Start” at the bottom of the window. A new

popup that shows you the download progress will appear. The completed download will be

announced by the text “The Task is completed!”. Return to the Selection Manager by clicking on the

blue rectangle at the lower left of the progress window. This time, you want to use the “Stitch” tab

to export the downloaded images

as an image file you can use in

WED.

The ”Stitch” page offers several

options to control image quality

and size. At first, select the image

format you want to use, common

formats are PNG or JPEG. In the

field below, select the folder you

want to save the images to (It’s

helpful to create an image folder in

your Airport Editing folder for

that). In the “Zoom” dropdown,

select the zoom level you

downloaded before. You can

furthermore change the image

quality in the lower left, 95%

usually works fine however. Since

you have to position the image at the correct location you must select a georeferencing file, most

of the editors use kml files. The kml file will later show coordinates for the corners of the image.

The “Stitch” page is furthermore equipped with a menu to split the image in the lower right. This

might be necessary since World Editor can only handle a limited file size for a single image. This

limit may differ depending on the computer. Depending on the quality of your image and the

airport size the file size can go up to 100 MB. If the image appears blank in World Editor, the file is

too large and has to be split since WED will be able to handle the overall size of the image when it

is split into smaller portions. The performance of WED might go down in both cases. To split the

file, select how many pics should be cut in the “Split image” menu (Example: If you choose 3 in the

“horizontally” window and 2 in the “vertically” window, SAS will produce 3x2=6 single images.) To

export the image(s), click “Start” once all settings are correct. You can close SAS after exporting is

completed.

Picture 9: Selection Manager, Download page

Picture 10: Selection Manager, Stitch page

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

The only thing left to do now is import the images into World Editor. Open the scenery package of

your airport and go to “File”- “Import Orthophoto…” and select the image(s) you generated for the

airport. Depending on your system it may take a while until the picture shows up. If you import

several images, all images will be placed on top of each other. To position them correctly, you now

need the generated kml files. Every image has a kml file with the same name that contains the

coordinates for the image corners. To enter the coordinates, copy one of them from the kml file.

Select one of the nodes of the image by clicking on it and copy the coordinate in the right section

in the lower right window of World Editor.

Of course, you have to enter the right coordinate at the right position and you will notice, that the

kml file only contains four coordinates (north, east, south west) but each corner needs two

coordinates. So how to enter the coordinates correctly? See the graphic below to learn how to do

it:

Picture 11: Which coordinate from the kml goes in which section

WED-O-MAKER

In contrast to SASPlanet, WED-o-Maker can be very easy to use. Once the airport is imported in the

scenery package/the new airport has been created at the correct location, save the changes, close

the scenery pack and close World Editor. After that, start WED-o-Maker and wait for it to launch.

You can then select the scenery pack you imported the airport into via the dropdown menu in the

toolbar. WED-o-Maker will go to the airport on the map automatically. Afterwards, select an image

quality level in the dropdown next to it. The entire map visible in the browser window will be

imported into WED by the program once you hit “Make visible in WED”, so the only way to influence

the area you will see in WED later is zooming in or out and moving the map with the cursor. After

starting the loading process, the number of downloaded tiles (=parts of the picture) will be

displayed in the tool bar. Once the process is finished, you can open the scenery package in World

HOW DO I IMPORT MANY ORTHOPHOTOS QUICKLY?

You might be shocked by the number of pictures to import and position. However, it’s way

easier then it seems since you can use the following tips:

▪ You can use the same coordinates for an entire row of pics (e.g. the north coordinates

of the upper row are the same for all pics in the row)

▪ Once you have the first pics positioned you can snap the adjacent pics to them

 Start with the corners and snap, the last pic won’t need any manually entered

coordinate anymore

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Editor again. The loading process might take longer and the performance of WED might be

impacted. Once the launch is completed, you will see the satellite image imported in World Editor

and you can start working on your airport.

AIRPORT EDITING

With all downloads and installations completed, you are now ready for editing your first airport.

Editing will happen in World Editor. You will use the software to draw taxiways, taxi lines and

outlines as well as for editing airport numbers (elevation, runway lengths etc.) and spawn

information.

BASIC WED TOOLS

To create airports of a high quality it’s important to know the tool you use for that. World Editor

offers various tools and options for all elements.

The editing window of World editor comes split into three columns. For Infinite Flight airports, you

won’t need the left column (Libraries) so you can just minimize it by dragging the edge of the

column to the left. You then have a large editing column and a smaller column with an object list

including a search tool (top) and an option window (bottom). The width of the right column can be

varied by dragging the edge around. Your basic WED setting will then look like this:

Picture 12: Basic World Editor Setting with left (Library) column removed

Obviously, the different sections have different functions:

▪ Editing Window

The editing window is the area where you draw and edit your airport. After selecting a tool, you

can either move the airport, separate nodes, draw lines and taxiways. You can also select objects

to edit them using the option window. Move around in the scenery by clicking with the right key of

the mouse while dragging with the mouse and zoom in and out with the wheel of your mouse.

Object List

Option Window

Editing Window

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

▪ Object List

The object list shows all objects used in your airport. They are automatically named and don’t need

any edits in the first place. Only spawns have to be named with suitable names or according to

charts. You can use the search bar to find a certain object. Furthermore, grouping of objects is

possible. The position in the list will impact how the airport is rendered in IF. If one line is above

another line in the list, it will be rendered on top of the other one in both, WED and IF. Selecting an

object in the list will also show the details in the option window. To get a clean list it’s highly

recommended to create groups (e.g. one for taxiways, one for lines and one for ATC frequencies.)

To group objects, select the desired items by clicking on them while holding shift and choose

“Group” in the “Edit” menu or hit Ctrl+G. To avoid unintended object movements, the object list

(and the object itself in the option window) offer an option to lock elements or entire groups. Just

select the object/ group in the object list and click on the lock symbol. You can also make certain

objects invisible by clicking on the eye symbol. ATTENTION: objects made invisible will not be

exported when the airport is exported. Make all objects visible again before sending it for review!

▪ Option Window

In the option window, you can change certain settings for the selected object. These can be runway

markings, lightning and line types as well as spawn attributes. Find more on these topics in later

chapters. The option window also allows to switch between different views where WED only shows

certain objects (only pavement, only lines, also show plane shapes for the spawns etc.)

On the left side of the WED window you can see the tools available. You won’t need all of them for

airports created for Infinite Flight. Each tool offers different options in the top line of the editing

window. The taxiway and line tools will show options for lines and lights, the runway tools allow

quick settings for new runways and the ramp start tool will allow you to set different spawn

attributes before positioning the spawns. These settings can be altered in the option window later

in the editing process. There are only two tools that can be used universally: The Vertex tool and

the Marquee tool. While the other tools are used to create certain object, these two tools allow to

edit and move them afterwards. The vertex tool allows you to select and move single lines or line

parts, nodes, or other objects. The marquee tool can be used to select several entire objects up to

the entire airport and move them completely. The selected elements can be moved and scaled by

dragging. When holding the Alt key, arrows will appear at the edges and you can rotate selected

objects. The same rule applies to runways and helipads.

HOW DO I USE THE GROUPING FUNCTION BEST?

Ideally, you group all objects of a kind, so one group for all lines, one for all taxiways and so

on. Additionally, you can create further groups for different types of lines. By creating separate

groups for holds, road lines/ outlines, taxiway edge lines and centerlines, you can easily edit

the rendering of the airport e.g. by moving holds on top of centerlines only by reordering the

groups in the object list.

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Below, you can find an overview of all tools available, the shortcuts for the tools are displayed in

brackets:

Apart from these tools, the different columns at the very top (File, Edit, View, etc.) offer various

tools to change things.

▪ File

The File column offers options for the import and export of the airport files, to save changes and

to revert the airport to the last saved changes. Orthophotos are also imported through this menu.

▪ Edit

Use the Edit menu to undo and redo actions, to reorder objects and to duplicate them. The

grouping option is also selectable here.

▪ View

This column is for everything regarding rendering directly in World Editor. You can change the

transparency level of the taxiways, make the low definition world map invisible, switch the

rendering of nodes and lines on and off or change from meters to feet and vice versa.

Vertex Tool (V)

Runway Tool (R)

Helipad Tool (H)

Taxilines Tool (L)

Light Fixture (F)

Beacon Tool (E)

Tower Viewpoint Tool (A)

Boundary Tool (B)

Object Tool (not used in IF)

Forests Tool (not used in IF)

Lines Tool (not used in IF)

Exclusions Tool (not used in IF)

Truck Parking Tool (not used in IF)

Marquee Tool (M)

Sealane Tool (S)

Taxiway Tool (T)

Hole Tool (K)

Signs Tool (G)

Windsock Tool (W)

Ramp Start Tool (O)

Taxiroutes Tool (not used in IF)

Facades Tool (not used in IF)

Strings Tool (not used in IF)

Polygon Tool (not used in IF)

Truck Destination Tool (not used in IF)

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▪ Select

This menu won’t be used to much. Use it if you want to select several objects at once, also

depending on their ordering.

▪ Airport

In the Airport menu, you can create new airports, add ATC frequencies and meta data.

▪ Help

Help allows access to the WED guide by Laminar Research and some software information.

AIRPORT SETTINGS AND EQUIPMENT

The first thing to edit at your airport are some facts and numbers. Every airport needs an identifier

entered, the airport elevation assigned and the correct ATC frequencies added. Apart from that, all

airports for Infinite Flight need a tower viewpoint and a boundary. If the airport has one, a rotating

beacon can be added as well.

AIRPORT NAME

The naming of the airport should follow the charts. To make the search for the airport in the

simulator easier, you may also add the name of the city the airport services in addition to the

official name. Note that the first two words of the airport name will be read by Infinite Flight when

calling ATC frequencies (e.g. when the airport name is “Paris Charles De Gaulle”, the ATC voice will

read “Paris Charles [Frequency Name]”). To change the name of the airport, double click it in the

object list or in the option window when the entire airport is selected.

AIRPORT IDENTIFIER

The airport identifier can be altered in the same way. Select the airport and edit the entry “ICAO

code” in the option window. In case your airport only has a FAA identifier you can enter this one as

well.

AIRPORT ELEVATION

The airport elevation is a very crucial piece of data for IF. If you enter an elevation that is too low,

the airport may end up in a giant hole, if it’s too high you will generate an artificial cliff around the

airport. The best sources are usually official charts, if you can’t find any, there are several web

pages that offer information on airports (see chapter “useful links”). Always make sure to have the

correct units selected in the “View” menu – there’s a significant difference between feet and meters.

The airport elevation can be changed in the option window when the airport is selected in the

object list.

ATC FREQUENCIES

When it comes to ATC frequencies, there are several scenarios of what you can do. When the

airport is selected, you can find the line “Has ATC” in the option window next to other options. If

your airport has ATC services, you have to set a checkmark here. If a “X” is selected, click on it to

change it to the check mark. The airport will be displayed with a blue airport icon in IF and

controllers will be able to operate at the airport. If your airport doesn’t have ATC services or only

an Unicom frequency or something equal, set the ATC status to “X”. The airport will then get a violet

icon. This will only work if you don’t add any other ATC frequency types than CTAF or AWOS!

Airports usually come with a set of ATC frequencies in the .dat file. If you didn’t delete them when

starting your work, you still have to check the frequencies for the correct numbers and frequency

types. Select a frequency in the object list and have a look at the frequency information in the

option window. Frequencies can be found in charts and on the internet.

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Note that you can choose different frequency types:

▪ AWOS – used for ATIS and AWOS frequencies

▪ CTAF – used for Unicom and CTAF frequencies

▪ Clearance Delivery – not yet supported in IF, can be added nevertheless

▪ Ground Controlled – used for ground and apron frequencies

▪ Tower

▪ Approach

▪ Departure

For Infinite Flight, you only need to add one frequency per type. Also, Center frequencies don’t

have to be added. Furthermore, you can name the frequencies like they are called in real life

instead of the generic “TWR” or “GND” names. The names may not have an impact on IF now, but

this might change in the future. In case you have none or less frequencies than needed for your

airport, you can easily create a new frequency. Select the airport in the object list and select “Add

Frequency” in the “Airport” menu or hit Ctrl+F with the airport selected. The new frequency will be

added at the bottom of the object list as “unnamed entity”. Rename it and enter the required data.

Apart from these data sets, our airports also need some “hardware” – at least a tower viewpoint

and a boundary. In addition, the rotating beacon can be added to airports that are equipped with

one.

TOWER VIEWPOINT

To add a tower viewpoint, select the tower viewpoint tool. At the upper edge of the editing window,

you can select the tower height (AGL not MSL; in the unit selected in “View”) before placing the

tower viewpoint on the tower visible in the satellite images by clicking with the mouse. If you have

a hard time finding the tower with the images in WED, an airport chart can help. In case you need

to change the altitude later, you can do this in the option window upon selecting the tower

viewpoint in the object list or in the editing window.

AIRPORT BOUNDARY

The airport boundary has to be added to define the area that should be rendered at the airport

elevation. For that reason, you have to redraw the airport fence with the boundary tool. You are

required to follow the boundary as precisely as possible. This includes curving the boundary where

the real-world airport boundary is curved. More on curving can be found in the “Nodes” chapter.

Often, the boundary of the airport may also be defined by terminal buildings, hangars or other

buildings. Include them in the airport and draw the boundary around them. You may later snap

the boundary to these buildings. However, you have to make sure that NO OBJECT included in the

airport is located outside of the boundary.

CHARTS ARE A GREAT SOURCE! WHERE DO I GET THEM?

For many airports, airport charts can be found by searching with the ICAO on Google. Apart

from that, some countries offer the official charts for free in there AIPs. The most convenient

way to get a chart as an editor is far easier though! Ask Tom (@kilt46) for it – he can get you

charts for almost all airports in the world.

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AIRPORT BEACON

A respectable number of airports in the world are equipped with an airport beacon. This doesn’t

mean a navigation aid but a light mounted on a tower or a pole identifying controlled airports at

night. To see if your airport has an airport beacon, you can again use an

airport chart or you utilize the internet. http://www.worldaerodata.com

usually lists an airport beacon if an airport is equipped with one. It may be

hard to find the location of the beacon very often, but a chart also helps

here since the position of the beacon is often marked there. If you can’t find

the real position just place the beacon on top of the tower.

The airport beacon is available for several types of airports. You must always

select the correct beacon type for your airport, either before placing it by

clicking on the location in the editing window with the beacon tool selected

or later. To select the beacon type before placing it, choose the type at the

upper edge of the editing window when the beacon tool is activated, if you

want to edit it afterwards, select it using the vertex tool or in the object list

and do so in the option window. The following beacon types are available:

▪ Airport

▪ Seaport

▪ Heliport

▪ Military Airport

If your airport is a military airport with civil use, rather select “Airport” instead of “Military Airport”.

RUNWAYS AND HELIPADS, PAPIS AND VASIS

Obviously, all airports require a runway or a helipad to get planes off the ground. Those can be

runway and sea-lanes as well as helipads. Helipads and sea-lanes are not yet rendered in IF,

runways are of course.

RUNWAYS

To add a runway, start the runway tool. Before drawing the runway, you can already select the

runway material, the shoulder material (if there is one) and several light options. The runway

shoulder will be generated with an automatic width that can’t be altered. If the shoulder doesn’t fit

the shoulder in real life, draw it manually. All settings can be edited at the finished runway in the

options window. There you can also set different markings and lights for each runway end.

The runway will be created between two points you select. It’s crucial, that you draw the runway in

the right direction, otherwise you will get in some trouble when you want to export the airport. To

create a runway correctly, you have to set the starting point at the middle of the runway threshold

of the runway with the lower number (e.g. at the 08 end of a RWY 08/26) or, as a general rule, draw

from the south and west towards the north and east. Once you click on the spot on the runway,

you will see a small green cross displayed. Move to the other runway end and click on the other

threshold and the runway will be generated with numbers. You can change them manually as well.

Once the runway is generated, you can still alter the size. The length can be adjusted by pulling on

the green boxes at the runway ends. The width can only be adjusted by changing the number in

the width line in the option window. In that window, you can also change lighting, markings and

the shoulders. Always make sure to add the correct attributes. The runway lighting is often listed

in airport charts (e.g. Jeppesen) or has to be guessed by the shape of the approach lights. The

runway markings can be easily checked visually using the orthophotos.

Picture 13: Airport Beacon

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The following runway marking types exist:

The different markings are:

▪ None No touch down zone markings, no centerline and threshold markings

▪ Visual No touch down zone markings, centerline and threshold markings present

▪ Non-Precision Single touch down zone markings, centerline and threshold markings

o UK Touch down marking chequered

o US Touch down marking solid

▪ Precision Multiple touch down zone markings, centerline and threshold markings

o UK Main touch down marking chequered

o US Main touch down marking solid

In case you have to find out the approach lights from the orthophoto, here’s a visualization:

Picture 14: Runway Marking Types (Left to Right): None, Visual, Non-Precision (UK), Non-Precision (US), Precision (UK),

Precision (US)

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Apart from the normal runways, you might also see runways with stopways and/or displaced

thresholds. Don’t draw the arrows and markings manually, the special runway parts can be

rendered automatically. When the runway is selected you will see two arrows at the threshold, one

facing towards the runway and one facing away. To draw a displaced threshold, align your runway

end with the end of the displaced threshold (either the end of the paved runway or where it

touches the stopway), then use the arrow facing towards the runway and align the white line with

the displaced threshold line (beginning of the runway itself). The displaced threshold is part of the

calculated runway length in WED. To add a stopway equipped with yellow chevrons, drag the arrow

facing away from the runway until the yellow rectangle reaches the end of the pavement. If the

stopway doesn’t have markings, don’t use the stopway feature of WED but draw the area

with a taxiway manually!

See how a runway equipped with stopway and displaced threshold will look compared to the real-

world example:

Generating sea lanes works exactly like the creation of runways. The options are limited

nevertheless.

HELIPADS

Helipads are not rendered in IF now. Nevertheless, it is not permissible to draw helipad markings

manually. When you see a helipad in the airport, add it using the helipad tool. You can add helipad

lights and select the material before and after creating it. If it’s a helipad that’s only drawn on the

Stopway

Stopway

Displaced Threshold

Displaced Threshold

WHAT ARE STOPWAYS AND DISPLACED THRESHOLDS?

Displaced Threshold: An area of the runway fit for aircraft movements during takeoff roll and

landing, not suitable to touch down on it. Displaced thresholds are marked with a centerline

of white arrows

Stopway (or blast pad): Area that may not be used for any regular aircraft movements. Usually

made from a weaker material. Often marked with large yellow chevrons

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Picture 15: Runway in WED and the real-world runway in comparison

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

apron with markings, add it as “transparent”. To generate a helipad, click in the middle of the

helipad. To set the orientation, hold the key on your mouse and drag away. A movable arrow will

appear and can be moved so the arrow is rectangular to the taxiway edge. Release the mouse and

the helipad will appear. Renaming of the helipad is only possible when you keep the format

H[number] (H01, H02, H03 etc.). By changing the numbers in the option window you can adjust the

helipad size as well as you can use the mouse by dragging the edges around with the green boxes

with your mouse.

PAPI AND VASI LIGHTS

Apart from instrument equipment like ILS, the majority of airports are equipped with visual

guidance hardware, namely VASI (Visual approach slope indicator) and PAPI (Precision approach

path indicator) lights. You can add these using the light fixture tool. You can choose between

▪ PAPI (Left Side)

▪ PAPI (Right Side)

▪ PAPI (20 Degrees)

▪ VASI

▪ VASI (Tri-Color)

▪ Wig-Wags (These don’t have to be added to IF, they mark runway hold lines flashing yellow)

The left and right side attached to the

taxiway refer to the position of the lights

relative to the runway from the perspective

of the plane approaching. Make sure to

orientate the lights correctly, meaning that

the (tiny) arrow and the wider side of the

light is facing the plane that would approach

the runway. Also make sure to enter the

correct approach angle. Usually, 3° are in

use, some airports have different angles

though. Some airport charts show the angle

of the PAPI lights. 20 degree PAPI lights are

only used at aerospace facilities for their approaches. These PAPI lights are not located next to the

runway but in front of it. PAPI lights are usually built in groups of four or two single lights

somewhere around the touchdown zone. Ideally, position the light in the middle of the group in

WED. How a PAPI light set looks like on satellite imagery can be seen on the right.

In contrast to PAPI lights, VASI lights are not ordered next to each other but in a line parallel to the

runway. There are “normal” VASI lights and VASI (Tri-Color) lights. Which kind of VASI light the

airport you are doing has, can be found in charts and/or online.

Picture 16: PAPI (left)

Picture 17: VASI lights

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NODES

For the next chapters, this word will be your best friend: node. So, what

is a node?

Nodes are used for taxiways, lines and boundaries in World Editor when

editing for Infinite Flight. When creating those, every click will create a

node that will appear as a green dot once the object is created. A node is

basically a fixed point of a so-called Bezier curve that can be straight as

well as curved. The node is not only a fixed point though, but it is made

a true control center for the lines that use it as an “anchor” through a lot

of very helpful key combinations. You can curve the adjacent lines and you can control line features

such as line types and lights. All in all, the node enables you to create every shape that can be

found in any airport of the world. Since nodes define fix coordinates that will be saved in your

airport file, one of the most important aim we have is reducing the number of nodes. This is

achieved by adding edge markings directly to the taxiway edge itself, by reducing the number of

separate taxiway parts and using the hole cutting tool and, most important: curving instead of

recreating curves with lots of nodes.

Since we want a small airport file, you are asked to use as little nodes as possible and therefore

you should create objects with as little points as possible initially. You can easily add additional

nodes where they are needed by selecting the object and clicking on that point of the taxi

line/taxiway edge where you want a new node to be while holding Alt.

Upon creating a taxiway or a line in WED, you can already curve the lines you create by selecting

fix points/nodes. To do so, you hold the left mouse key when creating a node and move your

mouse. This way of curving tends to be quite inaccurate though since you will most likely curve the

next section of the line in a way you don’t want. Therefore, rather curve the lines once the

taxiway/line is completed. You will have to use key combinations for curving.

Before you can curve something, you must select

the object. Then, click on a node and keep the left

mouse key clicked while holding Alt. Drag the

mouse away while keeping the keys pressed. The

node will then turn to a green circle and arrows will

appear. Initially, they will be synchronized, so the

line parts on both sides of the node will be curved.

Due to the different look of a node with arrows, it’s

easier to detect nodes that have curving arrows

added accidentally.

Since very often, curves are only needed on one side of a node or the curve on one side goes into

the opposite direction of the other side. In these cases, you can alter one arrow only or remove it.

To curve one arrow independent from the second one, click on the arrow and keep the mouse

clicked while holding Alt again. To remove one arrow entirely, click on the arrow while holding

Alt+Shift. In case you remove one arrow accidentally or you want to synchronize the arrow again,

click on the still existing arrow while holding Shift. In case you want to synchronize the arrows,

click on the arrow with the length and orientation you want to set for both arrows. In case you have

the arrow synchronized and you click one arrow while holding Shift, the arrows will be removed

completely.

Picture 18: A node (not selected)

Picture 19: Node with curving arrows

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

With these key combinations, you will be able to create almost every curve you will find in airports

without creating a new node in addition to the nodes at the two ends of the line part to be curved.

Laminar Research has done a nice list with all key combination:

To create high quality airports and to avoid issues in later stages of airport editing, you are asked

to remove every arrow that is not needed for a curve. If you have a straight taxiway leading to a

curve, create the curve and remove the arrow that is not needed for the curve so it doesn’t impact

the form of the straight part of the taxiway. This is crucial where two taxiways touch (see next

chapter).

Another important thing is to avoid overcurving. In most of the cases, overcurving will only cause

curves that don’t look realistic. However, there might be cases where overcurving can cause

taxiways to become invisible. You may ask yourself now “What is overcurving?”. It basically means

that your curve arrow exceeds a certain length. To avoid it, your arrows have to stay in a certain

area. You want the ends of the arrows to remain in the area between the curve and the (imaginary)

Picture 20: Key combinations and their effect on WED nodes

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

extension of the straight line adjacent to the curve. Yes, this sounds very complicated and you

probably still don’t know where to put your arrow, so here’s a visual explanation.

If you don’t follow this curving guideline, you will cause curves which will look like in the following

picture. The curve will not curve in one direction but will first follow a path in the opposite direction:

Nodes are not only used for curving but also for the most important quality factor in Infinite Flight

Airport Editing: snapping.

SNAPPING

When drawing taxiways and taxi lines you will come across points where two or more lines or

taxiways meet each other. Obviously, we don’t want gaps between different taxiway materials or

between taxiways and buildings. The same applies for taxi lines. That’s why snapping is mandatory

at every airport. Whenever two lines merge and wherever two taxiways meet, they need to be

snapped. Of course, also lines that touch taxiway edges must be snapped.

To allow snapping in World Editor, make sure the option “Snap to vertices” is selected (✓) in the

upper left corner of the editing window when the Vertex tool is activated. This will allow you to

snap nodes together.

RIGHT

WRONG

Picture 21: Correct and incorrect curving

Picture 22: Badly curved line

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

To snap nodes, simply drag one node towards the node of the other line it has to be snapped to

until it “jumps” onto the other node. Alternatively, you can snap nodes that are very close to each

other by double clicking on one of the nodes.

When you are snapping taxiways together which are curved, the arrows have to be snapped as

well! Snapping arrows works exactly like normal snapping. Where straight taxiway edges are

touching, make sure to remove superfluous arrows so you don’t need to snap unnecessarily.

Often, there are locations where two taxiways and a line meet at one point. In that case you must

create a node to snap the line to at

both

taxiways and snap all three nodes together. This often

happens where taxiway centerlines enter hangars or where holds need to be snapped to taxiways

with a separate shoulder.

While snapping might be important at lots of places, there are also constellations where snapping

is not necessary.

Snapping is mandatory at the following locations:

▪ Two lines merge

▪ Line touches a taxiway edge

▪ Spawn points on taxi lines (details in the “Spawns” chapter)

▪ Line touches two bordering taxiways

▪ Two taxiways touch each other

Snapping is not required here:

▪ Two lines cross

▪ Line crosses taxiway borders

▪ Holds cross the taxiway but don’t reach the taxiway

edge (you may snap these lines where they cross

the centerline)

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

TAXIWAYS AND BUILDINGS

In IF, airport buildings are not added in 3D but as taxiways. Therefore, the taxiway tool is not only

a taxiway tool for us but also a building tool. The taxiway tool offers several different taxiway tools:

▪ Asphalt

▪ Concrete

▪ Grass

▪ Dirt

▪ Gravel

▪ Dry Lakebed

▪ Snow

▪ (Transparent)

As of now, only asphalt and concrete taxiways are rendered in Infinite Flight. The other materials

are currently rendered as concrete.

When drawing taxiways, always use the real-life taxiway material. Note that it can happen quite

often that asphalt is colored very bright, while dirty concrete may be very dirty from rubber. Don’t

replicate the colors but the material. Concrete can often be identified by rectangular shapes in the

taxiway since concrete taxiways are usually cut to remove water and reduce tensions in the

material. Asphalt usually doesn’t have these. Charts can be helpful here as well as historic satellite

images e.g. by Google Earth.

To draw a taxiway, select the taxiway tool and a taxiway material. Create a path around the taxiway

of one material until you reach your starting point and the taxiway is generated. You may simplify

certain areas, e.g. when small asphalt patches are located inside of a concrete area. Use your best

judgement to decide how much detail you add with different taxiway colors. However, there’s a

rule you have to follow: Buildings have to be made from the opposite material (either concrete or

asphalt) of the taxiway it touches. Therefore, you might have to simplify areas near terminal

buildings to keep the terminal distinguishable. Otherwise, try to be as precise and exact as possible

for the taxiways. When adding buildings, don’t add movable jet bridges as part of the building and

don’t add taxiway lines as building outlines. You also must not add land-side paved areas such as

public roads or parking lots.

WHAT DO I NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHEN DRAWING TAXIWAYS AND RUNWAYS?

Runways don’t have nodes and cannot be snapped as a result. Instead, you have to overlap

taxiways with the runway to avoid gaps. You don’t have to follow the runway edge closely, but

you can overlap it as much as you want. Just make sure to remove edge lines of the taxiway

when you are overlapping a lot so the markings aren’t drawn on the taxiway too much.

When the runway shoulder in real life isn’t matched by the automatic shoulder generated by

World Editor, add the shoulder manually. You don’t need to spare the runway or cut a hole for

it. Simply draw a rectangle around the runway, it can also be included in another taxiway.

When drawing a grass runway, it will be rendered on top of any taxiway. It is recommended

to remove any taxiway lines where the grass runway crosses.

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

To keep the quality of the airport up while reducing the number of nodes, try to use as little

separate taxiways as possible. To achieve this, try to include as many areas of the same material

as possible and use the hole cutting tool afterwards. To cut a hole you have to make sure that the

taxiway you want to add a hole to is selected before you activate the hole cutting tool. To cut a

hole, just draw it by clicking around the edges of the holes or where different pavement patches

are to be inserted.

Before as well as after creating a taxiway, you can add taxiway edge lines and lights to the edges

of the taxiway if the edge lines are drawn directly at the edge of the taxiway (Find all line types in

the next chapter). If the taxiway has a taxiway shoulder of the same material as the main taxiway,

you should add the edge lines/lights using the line tool. You can add/remove the edge lines in

different ways. Firstly, you can select lines and lights for the entire taxiway by selecting the line and

light types in the editing window prior to drawing the taxiway. Furthermore, you can select the

taxiway after its creation and edit the line type for the entire taxiways. In these cases, you have to

make sure that you remove the lines and lights wherever the taxiway touches a runway, a terminal

building or another taxiway. Also, you have to be precise and remove taxiway edge lines where

there are none. To edit/add lines and lights at certain areas of a taxiway, select one of the nodes

next to the area you want to edit. You can also select all nodes of a taxiway by pressing

Ctrl+Shift+Down. Changes to the lines at the node in the option window will affect the line up to

the next node. If the wrong edge section is edited, you have to edit the line attributes at the node

on the other end of the section you want to edit. You may need to add additional nodes to create

a precise line layout. When using holes you can also choose a separate line type for the entire edge

of the hole without changing the line type for the entire taxiway by selecting the hole outline using

the vertex tool.

Don’t forget to snap additional nodes to adjacent taxiway elements and be precise with lines!

LINES AND LIGHTS

Lines can also be added manually. Use this for taxiway edge markings that are not directly at the

outline of the taxiway. Also, the lines are used to add taxiway centerlines, roads and gate outlines.

You can choose line and light types before and after creating a line with the line tool. Taxi lights are

not yet part of IF but we create them to prepare airports for an addition of these lights. There are

no strict rules for taxiway lights because of that. Basically, use common sense. You are not required

to add lights and are not required to leave them entirely either. If you know exactly which lights an

airport has, it’s of course very appreciated if you add them during editing. When assigning taxiway

edge lights, you must make sure that the lights are added on the outer side of the taxiway.

A list of taxiway lines and lights can be found below.

As a general rule, for lines, you are asked to draw everything you see. You even

have to

draw all

taxiway edge lines, centerlines and hold lines. Roads and gate outlines are not mandatory as well

as arrows (e.g. the arrows indicating where to turn into the parking position), but it’s highly

recommended to add them. It may take more time but it will increase the overall realism of your

airport. However, there are things you must not add.

Don’t add:

▪ Letters and numbers

▪ Outlines to terminals

▪ Manually drawn runway numbers

▪ Arrows on displaced thresholds and stopways

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

▪ Hashed areas, i.e. don’t fill areas with lines (e.g. jetway movement areas) but only add the

outlines:

Again, make sure to snap all lines! Especially when you are new you don’t all the markings, so here’s

a list of all lines available in World Editor and Infinite flight along with example pictures:

Line Type Image

Line Type Name

Description and Use

Single Yellow

Yellow Line without gaps,

usually used as a TWY

centerline

Single Yellow (Black)

Yellow line with black

edge, usually used as a

TWY centerline

Broken Yellow

Short yellow lines with

small gaps, used as

centerlines and holds

Broken Yellow (Black)

Short yellow lines with

small gaps on black

ground, used as

centerlines and holds

Other Hold

Solid Yellow line with a

broken yellow line on top,

used as intermediate hold

Other Hold (Black)

Solid Yellow line with a

broken yellow line on top

on black ground, used as

intermediate hold

Runway Hold

Two Solid Yellow Lines

with two Broken Yellow

lines, broken part of the

hold is facing the runway

Picture 23: Correct way to draw hashed areas (left) and what not to add

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Runway Hold (Black)

Two Solid Yellow Lines

with two Broken Yellow

lines on black ground,

broken part of the hold is

facing the runway

ILS Hold

Two parallel yellow lines

connected by solid yellow

line pairs, used as holds

ILS Hold Black

Two parallel yellow lines

connected by solid yellow

line pairs on a black

ground, used as holds

Wide Broken Single

Yellow

Solid yellow lines with

wide gaps, used as

centerline and for

alternate parking positions

Wide Broken Single

Yellow (Black)

Solid yellow lines with

wide gaps on black

ground, used as centerline

and for alternate parking

positions

Double Solid Yellow

Two solid yellow lines,

used as taxiway edge line

Double Solid Yellow

(Black)

Two solid yellow lines with

black edges, used as

taxiway edge line

Wide Broken Double

Solid Yellow

Pairs of yellow lines with

wide gaps, used as taxiway

edge line on some aprons

Wide Broken Double

Solid Yellow (Black)

Pairs of yellow lines with

wide gaps on black

ground, used as taxiway

edge line on some aprons

ILS Critical Centerline

Solid yellow line with

dashed lines on each side,

centerline marking near

some runway holds

ILS Critical Centerline

(Black)

Solid yellow line with

dashed lines on each side

on black ground,

centerline marking near

some runway holds

Solid White (Roadway)

Solid white line, used for

roads and gate outlines,

replaces red lines in gate

areas

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Chequered White

(Roadway)

Mixed white-black line,

marks roads where they

cross taxiways

Broken White (Roadway)

Broken white line, used for

roads and some gate

outlines, replaces broken

red lines

In addition to the lines, you have the following options for lights:

Light Image

Light Name

Description and

Use

Taxiway Centerline

Lights (Green)

Green lights built

into the taxiway on

or next to the

centerline to

indicate the

taxiway; not all

airports have these

Taxiway Edge

Lights (Blue)

Blue lights

mounted next to

the taxiway or on

the shoulder,

indicate the

taxiway edge; quite

a lot of airports

have them

Hold Short Light

(Amber)

Orange lights built

into the taxiway to

highlight holding

points. Used for

intermediate holds

and runway holds

(Europe)

Hold Short Lights

(Pulsing Amber)

Flashing orange

lights marking

runway hold lines

(US)

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

Hold Short

Centerline Lights

(Amber/Green)

Orange and Green

lights built into the

centerline to

highlight runway

areas, usually used

from runway holds

to the end of the

line on the runway

Boundary Edge

Lights (Red)

Red lights, often

used to mark

construction sites

on the apron

SPAWNS

Now that you have finished the drawing part of the airport, there’s one more thing to add: Spawns.

By setting the spawns, you set the parking layout of the airport.

To add spawns, select the ramp start tool (O). You can set the spawn attributes at the top of the

editing window. It’s recommended to set the attributes before adding the spawn since it will be

much quicker to set the attributes for one set of spawns at once instead of changing them for every

single spawn after adding them.

You have to set the following spawn attributes

▪ Ramp Start Type

You can choose between

• Gate: Used for all kinds of airline parking and cargo positions

• Tie-Down Especially used for GA spawns where aircraft are tied to the ground

• Misc Used for all other parking outside of hangars (try to avoid this)

• Hangar Used for spawns that are placed

inside

of a hangar

▪ Equipment Type

You can add the equipment types Heavy Jets, Jets, Turboprops, Props, Fighters and Helicopters,

choose with common sense, several attributes can be selected at once (e.g. Heavy Jets, Jets).

The Heavy Jet attribute is only allowed for spawns with a size of class E and F!

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

▪ Size

You can choose from six different spawn sizes. To choose the correct ones, select the “ATC Taxi

+ Flow” above the option window. WED will display the size of spawn in shape of airplane

shadows. See the table below to check which airplane sizes represent the aircraft types in

Infinite Flight

Aircraft Size

IF Aircraft Types

A

CESSNA 172, CIRRUS SR22, F-14, F-16, F/A 18, F-22, Spitfire, Super Decathlon

B

A-10, Cessna 208, Cessna Citation X, Bombardier CRJ-200, P-38

C

Airbus A318-100, Airbus A319-100, Airbus A320-200, Airbus A321-200, Boeing

717-200, Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-900, Bombardier Dash

8 Q400, Embraer E170, Embraer E175, Embraer E190, Embraer E195

D

Boeing 757-200, Boeing 767-300, C-17 Globemaster III, C-130 Hercules

E

Airbus A330-200, Airbus A330-300, Airbus A340-600, Boeing 747-200, Boeing

747-400, Boeing 777-200, Boeing 777-200F, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-

300, Boeing 787-8, Boeing 787-9, Boeing 787-10

F

Airbus A380-800, Boeing 747-8

▪ Ramp Operation Type

Ramp operation types represent the use of the spawn. There are:

• General Aviation

• Airline

• Cargo

• Military

Use common sense when adding the ramp operation types.

You must not add ramp operation

types to Misc and Hangar spawns!

Once you are done adding all of the spawns,

continue by snapping the spawns to the

centerlines of the parking positions. The

spawn points you place is the location where

the nose wheel of your aircraft will be

positioned upon spawning. You don’t have to

snap them at the very end of the lines but you

can increase realism by snapping them to an

additional node on the line. The stop bars at

the gates give a good impression where the

spawns can be added. If you add a spawn to a

parking position that includes a turn, there

are two different types. Type one consists of a

straight line followed by a curve, another

short straight line and a second curve part

leaving the position. In this case the spawn is

to be placed at the second straight line (see

picture) Type two consists of a straight line

Picture 24: Type 1 curved parking

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

followed by a curve leaving the parking

position. You must position the spawn at the

end of the straight line in this case. another

short straight line and a second curve part

leaving the position. Once the spawns are

snapped, use the arrows going away from the

spawn symbol to set the heading of the spawn

as precisely to the heading of the line as

possible. Simply click on them,hold on your

mouse and turn the airplane symbol.

In contrast to all other objects, ramp starts

have to be named. The names you add will

later show in Infinite Flight when you select a location to start your flight from. The names of the

parking positions must follow the real-life gate names/numbers as listed in charts. In addition to

the gate numbers you can also add a more describing title to it. See various name options below –

they have to be in English regardless of the airports location!

Picture 25: Type 2 curved parking

HOW DO I NAME THE DIFFERENT SPAWNS CORRECTLY?

Most charts will only show numbers or number letter combinations as spawn names. To

improve the user experience, you may add additional titles and/or the name of the area the

parking spot is located at.

Some of the general titles you should add are

▪ Gate: For positions used by airlines, especially at the terminals

▪ Remote (Gate): For positions used for airline operations away from the terminals

▪ Cargo: For parking positions used for cargo operations, combined with the Gate label

in the spawn settings

▪ Maintenance: When spawns are located away from the terminals near hangars,

maintenance might be used for them

▪ General Aviation (GA): Use this for all spawns where private aircraft of all sizes are

parked, FBO is another name option for certain GA areas

▪ Hangar (Shelter): Place a spawn in a hangar completely to name it this way. Small

hangars for a single fighter at military bases can also be named as shelter

▪ (Military) Apron: Whenever a positions use is unclear you may use apron as a name.

At military airports, you can add military airports to the majority of positions. There

might also be “Military Hangar” or “Military Gates”, however.

Some possible area names are

▪ Terminal Name: At airports, it can be very helpful to add the terminal name to gates

(e.g. Terminal 1, International Terminal, Satellite Terminal etc.)

▪ Company Name: Major flight club’s names may also be added to GA spawns (e.g.

English Channel Glider Club)

You can also combine all these titles (e.g. Terminal 2 Gate 221, Glider Club Apron 1)

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QUICK TIP

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

AIRPORT EXPORT

Congratulations! You’ve just completed

your first airport! There’s one more

thing that’s left to do. Since we can’t

work with scenery packs in Infinite

Flight, you have to export the airport in

an apt.dat file again. To do so, ensure

that the export target (File menu) is set

to X-Plane 10.50 and go to “File – Export

apt.dat”. Save the file in the folder for

the airport in your “Airports” folder. It

might still be open in the export

window opening from the import at the

beginning of editing. If not, you can

either navigate through the country

folders manually or, if you don’t know in which country an airport is located, search for its identifier

in the search bar of the export window. After that, overwrite the old apt.dat file in the folder. During

export, WED will automatically check if there are any issues.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Sometimes issues may occur during editing and you might ask yourself how to fix them. Here you

can find some solutions for frequent issues.

TRANSPARENT/INVISIBLE TAXIWAYS

Transparent taxiways can be caused by several things:

▪ Check the pavement transparency setting

Maybe you’ve just set the pavement transparency to “None”. Go check it in the View menu.

▪ The satellite image can cover the taxiway

If you have your SAS images ordered on top of the airport, one taxiway will always be

covered by the image. Set the images to invisible and check if you can see the taxiway again.

▪ It might be caused by a bug in World Editor

Sometimes, WED doesn’t show taxiways at certain zoom levels when there are lots of holes

cut into the taxiway. Try to zoom in and out and check if the taxiways appears at other

zoom levels

▪ A hole in the taxiway might be located outside of the taxiway/might overlap the taxiway

outline

Holes have to be positioned inside the taxiway entirely. Check if you have holes cut that

are crossing the taxiway outline. If yes, edit the holes until they are inside the taxiway or

snapped to the edges. If this doesn’t help, select the taxiway and zoom out. The taxiway

will be highlighted orange. If you see anything outside the taxiway that is orange as well, it

might be a hole that was supposed to be cut into another taxiway. Instead, you might have

had the now transparent taxiway selected when using the hole cutting tool. Remove the

hole outside of the taxiway and delete it. If the taxiway doesn’t appear again, check the

next solutions.

▪ The taxiway might be wound the wrong way around

For whatever reason, your taxiway might be wound the wrong way around. To fix this, use

the reverse option in the edit menu (Ctrl+Shift+R). If this doesn’t help, undo the reversing

to have the taxiway wound correctly again.

Picture 26: Airport export window

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

▪ The taxiway might overlap itself

This can be caused by inaccurate drawing and snapping as well as by bad curving. Below

you can see examples of how these issues may look in World Editor.

As a first step to restore the pavement you should try to find a spot where one of these

issues is present. At first, check if there are any places like in image (3) where the taxiway

is snapped with itself. If this is the case, check the snapping. To avoid this as a potential

issue, try to design holes in the taxiways with the hole cutting tool!

If this doesn’t help, try to find out if and, if yes, where an issue like in (1) and (2) is present

in your taxiway. Therefore, save your current progress. After that, start deleting all curving

arrows. If the taxiway becomes visible this way, go to File – Revert to Saved. Your saved

progress will be restored. Delete the last node you’ve deleted before again. If the taxiway

remains transparent, check all the arrows you’ve deleted before until the taxiway becomes

visible. If you can delete all arrows without the taxiways becoming visible again, start to

delete the nodes (select the node and hit the “Delete” key). Once the taxiway becomes

visible you might have found the location with the fault. Restore the last saved version and

try to fix any issues at that location. If this doesn’t help, there have to be other issues at

nodes you have already deleted before, so check the nodes you have deleted before the

taxiway became visible as well.

Once you fixed all issues, the taxiway will be visible again. If you tried all steps and all that

is left of the taxiway is a rectangle, you have to recreate the taxiway.

WRONGLY ORIENTATED LINES AND LIGHTS

There are some issues with line orientation that can be fixed easily.

As already mentioned in the lines section of this guide, runway holds and other holds have to be

oriented correctly. Wrongly oriented hold lines are subject to rejection in the review process.

Additionally, taxiway edge lights (blue) must be on the outside of the taxiway. If the edge lights are

directly added to the taxiway, the lights will always be added on the outside. If this isn’t the case,

you probably added the lights to the wrong taxiway (e.g. a taxiway shoulder or another taxiway

touching it). Add the taxiway lights to the right nodes then. You can select all nodes of a taxiway

when it is selected. This way you can access the nodes of the taxiway located lower in the ordering

as well.

For hold lines and when edge lights are added on the wrong side, select the line and use the reverse

tool in the edit menu (Ctrl+Shift+R).

Picture 27: Different causes of transparent taxiways. (1) Inaccurate drawing (2) accidental/wrong curving (3) snapping issue

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

FAILING AIRPORT EXPORT

Sometimes, you may get an error message when attempting to export your airport. Below you can

find solutions for several

RAMP OPERATION TYPES ONLY ALLOWED AT REAL RAMP STARTS

If you got this message, you have assigned ramp operation types to “Misc” or “Hangar” spawns

during editing. This is not allowed. Remove all ramp operation types from spawns with ramp start

type “Misc” or “Hangar” to fix this.

POLYGON WOUND CLOCKWISE

A taxiway is wound incorrectly. World Editor automatically selects the taxiway with the issue. If the

taxiway is visible, you have to redraw it. If it’s transparent, reverse it (Ctrl+Shift+R).

RUNWAY HAS ILLEGAL HIGH-END NUMBER

Runways must be named with the lower number first, e.g. 09/27, 18/36 etc. Change the name of

the runway to fix this issue.

RUNWAY NEEDS TO BE REVERSED TO MATCH ITS NAME

Runways have to be drawn from the south/west to the north/east, so from the lower number side

to the higher number. You have drawn it the opposite way. Reverse the taxiway to fix this issue.

THIS AIRPORT HAS GROUND/DELIVERY BUT NO TOWER

Airports that are equipped with a clearance delivery and/or ground frequency must have a tower

frequency as well. You probably forgot to add that one. Select the airport and create a new Tower

frequency (Ctrl+F) with the correct frequency information to allow an export of the airport.

REVIEWING PROCESS

All issues are fixed and the airport is exported. All you need to do now is submitting the airport

successfully.

#PEER-REVIEW

To ensure that your airport doesn’t have any issues you didn’t notice it’s highly recommended to

use the peer-review channel on slack. Simply upload the apt.dat file of your airport and tell your

fellow editors which airport this is. You can upload the file by clicking on the “+” next to the text

bar. Search your directory for the file and upload it. You can also upload it using drag and drop.

Usually, other editors will have a quick look at the airport within a day. They might not detect every

single issue but they definitely help reducing the risk of a rejection in the official review.

Obviously, peer-review is a channel that only works if it is considered a “give and take” service.

Once you are more experienced you are asked to have a look at the airports of other editors asking

for help.

Please note: Peer-Review only makes sense if you use it

before

submitting the airport for official

review!

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

OFFICIAL REVIEW

When your airport has passed peer-review and any remaining issues have been fixed, you can send

it for review. To do so, attach it to an email to contact@airportediting.com. Use the airport code as

the subject of the email. If there are any special characteristics for the airport, please let us know

in the email. Examples of these characteristics are:

▪ Changed airport code

▪ Recently added features (longer runway, new apron, new terminal etc.)

▪ Data source you used in case you edited a very remote field without many information on

the web

Please comply with some basic guidelines when emailing airports for review:

▪ Don’t send several mails for one airport or ask about the state of the review. Since the

reviewers use their free time for checking airports it may take several days up to a week (in

extreme cases even longer) until your airport can be reviewed.

▪ If you only edited minor issues (e.g. runway markings) or if you fixed reported issues at an

airport that has already been redone earlier, please list everything you changed in your

mail to speed up the review!

▪ If you detect issues with your airport after you’ve sent it in, you can still resubmit the

changes. Do this by replying to/forwarding the original email you sent. This might sound

strange but it has a reason: The emails are threaded in our inbox, meaning that all replies

are listed with the original mail. This makes sure that we always review the latest version

of the airport and that we can quickly see the issues that have led to a rejection before.

Therefore, also send corrections after the airport was rejected as a reply to the rejection

email.

▪ Please don’t send the entire folder of your airport but only attach the apt.dat file. This

speeds up review since reviewers don’t have to unzip any folders before review.

▪ It’s not needed to rename the apt.dat file (e.g. with the airport code). Just send it as “apt.dat”

Once you’ve sent the mail, don’t close the issue for the airport on GitHub! You can comment that

the airport has been sent for approval, anything else will be handled by the reviewer.

The airport won’t be added to Infinite Flight instantly but it will be added with the next scenery

update.

ILS ADJUSTMENTS AFTER REVIEW

Once the airport was accepted, it will be added to the repository. Once this happens, everyone can

get the latest version of the airport from GitHub. In case you moved one or more runways

equipped with ILS, or if you changed the airport elevation of an airport with an ILS-equipped

runway, you must create an issue in the Navigation repository of our organization. A navigation

editor will then update the runway data for the airport to ensure the functionality of the ILS. If this

is not done, discrepancies can cause the Autoland feature in IF to land the plane at the wrong

location and the ILS will not guide you to the runway precisely.

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

AIRPORT EDITING CHECKLIST

Before submitting your airport for review, use this checklist to make sure you edited everything

required for an acceptance.

✓ Airport Code is correct

✓ Airport Elevation is correct

✓ Airport Location is correct

✓ ATC frequency information is correct

✓ Airport Boundary is added

✓ Tower Viewpoint is added

✓ Tower Height is correct

✓ Airport Beacon is added (if present in real life)

✓ No objects are located outside of the boundary or cut the boundary

✓ Runways are added

✓ Runway numbers are correct

✓ Runway length is correct

✓ Displaced thresholds and stopways are added (if present IRL)

✓ Runway markings are correct

✓ Runway lighting is correct

✓ PAPI/VASI lights are added correctly

✓ All Taxiways are added

✓ Taxiway materials are correct

✓ All buildings are added

✓ Buildings be distinguished from taxiways

✓ Taxiways are overlapping runways

✓ All taxiways are snapped

✓ Taxiway markings are drawn accurately

✓ Marking types are correct

✓ Lines are snapped

✓ Hold lines are snapped

✓ Gate outlines are drawn

✓ No runway markings are drawn

✓ No hashed areas are present

✓ Spawns are added

✓ Spawn attributes are complete and correct

✓ Spawns are named correctly

✓ Spawns are snapped to lines

✓ Spawns are oriented correctly

✓ Export Target is set to X-Plane 10.50

✓ Email includes the ICAO code and necessary information

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

WED SHORTCUTS

World Editor is full of functions. Most have a shortcut key combination you can use to select it more

quickly. All shortcuts are displayed as Windows key combinations. For Mac, use command instead

of Ctrl.

MENUS

FILE

Close (the editing window) Ctrl+W

Save (the progress in your scenery pack)

Ctrl+S

Validate Ctrl+Shift+V

Import apt.dat Ctrl+Shift+I

Export apt.dat Ctrl+Shift+B

EDIT

Undo Ctrl+Z

Redo Ctrl+Shift+Z

Duplicate Ctrl+Shift+D

Group Ctrl+G

Ungroup Ctrl+Shift+G

Move First Ctrl+Shift+[

Move Up Ctrl+[

Move Down Ctrl+]

Move Last Ctrl+Shift+]

VIEW

Zoom to Airport Ctrl+Alt+/

Zoom Selection Ctrl+/

SELECT

Select All Ctrl+A

Select None Ctrl+D

Select Polygon (entire taxiway; only works

when one node of the taxiway is selected)

Ctrl+Shift+Up

Select Vertices (select all nodes separately;

only works with taxiway selected)

Ctrl+Shift+Down

AIRPORT

Create Airport Ctrl+Shift+A

Create ATC Frequency Ctrl+F

TOOLS

Vertex Tool V

Marquee Tool M

Runway Tool R

Sealane Tool S

Helipad Tool H

Taxiway Tool T

Taxilines Tool L

Hole Tool K

Light Fixture Tool F

Airport Beacon Tool E

Windsock Tool W

Tower Viewpoint Tool A

Ramp Start Tool O

Boundary Tool B

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

TABLE OF FIGURES

Picture 1: Downloading the repo through github.com

Picture 2: Download Page for SASPlanet Nightly

Picture 3: Typical Airport Editing Folder Structure

Picture 4: WED's appearance when opening it for the first time

Picture 5: Extracting the SASPlanet .7z folder

Picture 6: Landing page of WED-o-maker on first launch. Arrow indicates where the directory of the

Airport Editing folder has to be inserted

Picture 7: The issue tracker - use the search bar indicated by the arrow to search for the identifier

of your airport. Use the "Labels" button to only show airports with certain labels.

Picture 8: (1) Search Bar, (2) Source Selection, (3) Selection Tool

Picture 9: Selection Manager, Download page

Picture 10: Selection Manager, Stitch page

Picture 11: Which coordinate from the kml goes in which section

Picture 12: Basic World Editor Setting with left (Library) column removed

Picture 13: Airport Beacon

Picture 14: Runway Marking Types (Left to Right): None, Visual, Non-Precision (UK), Non-Precision

(US), Precision (UK), Precision (US)

Picture 15: Runway in WED and the real-world runway in comparison

Picture 16: PAPI (left)

Picture 17: VASI lights

Picture 18: A node (not selected)

Picture 19: Node with curving arrows

Picture 20: Key combinations and their effect on WED nodes

Picture 21: Correct and incorrect curving

Picture 22: Badly curved line

Picture 23: Correct way to draw hashed areas (left) and what not to add

Picture 24: Type 1 curved parking

Picture 25: Type 2 curved parking

Picture 26: Airport export window

Picture 27: Different causes of transparent taxiways. (1) Inaccurate drawing (2) accidental/wrong

curving (3) snapping issue

IMAGE SOURCES

Satellite Images taken from Google Earth

Approach Light visualization:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/attachments/approach_lighting_2-jpg.5788/

Picture 13: https://airportlightinginc.com/contact-airport-lighting-systems/

Picture 20: http://developer.x-plane.com/manuals/wed/

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INFINITE FLIGHT AIRPORT EDITING GUIDE 11/2017

DISCLAIMER

Infinite Flight Airport Editing is not affiliated in any way with Infinite Flight (IF) or Flying Development

Studio (FDS). Infinite Flight is copyright of Flying Development Studio, LLC, 2016. References made

to Infinite Flight or other FDS products are done so with kind express permission from Flying

Development Studio, LLC. Airport Editors don’t get paid but provide their work for use by FDS

voluntarily according to the Contributor License Agreement. Speculations that Airport Editors get

discounts on IF products, free Live+ subscriptions or access to alpha or beta testing are incorrect.

Joining the team to get access to exclusive features or discounts won’t get you anywhere in fact.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the entire Airport Editing team for supporting this guide with their ideas and questions

and obviously for all the hard work they do every day to improve the user experience in Infinite

Flight. Special thanks to Chris Levet for his help to get rid of these nasty misspellings that Word

didn’t see and his ideas to make some paragraphs easier to understand. Thanks also to Nick, who

created the Infinite Flight Airport Editing logo.

TEAM

CAMERON

TOM

“KILT MCHAGGIS”

MORITZ

DUSHYANTH

HENRIK

DAVID

JONATHAN