World Editor: A tutorial

If you would like to increase the accuracy of X-Plane's airports, you can use a stand-alone application called World Editor, also known as WED, which is available at no cost. The links to download WED can be found here:

Mac: http://scenery.x-plane.com/tools/wed_mac_100r1.zip

Windows: http://scenery.x-plane.com/tools/wed_win_100r1.zip

WED allows you to align an airport's runways and taxiways to real-world imagery. This is a brief tutorial to get you started and covers several of the "missing links" that are not covered in the WED help, which are really necessary to get started. This tutorial will focus on getting an airport and imagery into WED so you can begin editing.

As noted in the WED help, you won't be able to import the default X-Plane airport file, apt.dat, into WED. This file is located in your X-Plane folder in the following directory:

< Your X-Plane folder > Resources > default scenery > default apt dat > Earth nav data

This apt.dat file is a very large text file. At X-Plane 9.4, this file is over 60MB, too large to load into WED. You will need to open the apt.dat file in a text editor and then search for the airport identifier for your airport of interest.

**Be patient: When using a large text file, your text editor may be slow to respond to your commands and mouse clicks!

- Copy all the lines of the airport and paste it into its own text file.

- At the top of your new airport text file, enter the following header information:

I

850 Version

- At the bottom of the text file, enter 99

For example, a completed text file for the Calistoga airport would look like this:

I

850 Version

1    350 0 0 O58 Calistoga

100    6 1 0 0.25 0 0 0 10  38.57973831 -122.57538414    0    0 2 0 0 0 28  38.57696791 -122.56898841    0    0 2 0 0 0

99

**Important: Delete empty lines within the airport record. Not doing so may result in WED not being able to read your airport file.

**Note: This is a very simple airport. Large, complex airports with many runways, taxiways, and other features, may be hundreds of lines long!

You may name this new text file whatever you like. One useful technique is to name the text file according to the airport identifier, such as O58.txt, for the Calistoga airport in the example above. Save your new airport text file to any location on your computer.

- Start WED and choose your X-Plane folder location from the startup screen.

- Click New and enter a new workspace name in which to edit your airport.

This will create a new folder in your X-Plane > Custom Scenery folder.

- Click Open.

The main WED editing application appears.

- From the File menu, choose Import apt.dat.

Your file doesn't have to be named "apt.dat." You may name it anything you want.

- Browse to your airport text file that you previously saved and click Open.

On the right side of the dialog you'll see the details for just this airport. You could also import additional airports as well, but I usually work on one at a time and then export it out when I'm done.

- From the View menu, choose Zoom Package.

You should see your airport runways and taxiways.

WED can use three different image types which may be used to align your airport to the real world. These are discussed next.

1. Terraserver:

This is the default image source. The main advantage of Terraserver is that this imagery can be streamed directly into the WED application. Terraserver imagery is black and white and very dated when compared to what is available from many online sources available to the general public. However, it is built into WED and for many airports it will provide all of the information you need to create or align an airport. Due to the vintage of this imagery, it will not include newer airports or airport features such as recent runways, runway extensions, displaced thresholds, or ramp areas. However, because using this image source is very easy, you may want to start with this to see if the Terraserver imagery will be useful.

- To see the Terraserver background, choose View, then click Toggle Terraserver.

Sometimes the Terraserver imagery won't appear. Oftentimes this is because you need to zoom in to a larger scale. Sometimes saving your WED document and then exiting and coming back in will also solve the problem. Since this data is streamed into WED from an online server, you will need to have Internet access while using WED with Terraserver imagery.

2. Custom imagery:

The second image source available to you is your own custom imagery. If you would like to use your own imagery, you will need to identify the geographic coordinates (longitude and latitude) of each of the four corners. A variety of image formats can be used including JPEG and TIFF files.

- To load your own image, click View, then click Pick Overlay Image.

Next, you will need to register your image. Image registration is the process by which you enter coordinates to tell WED where your image is located on the earth.

- If necessary, click the white arrow, the Vertex editor, from the tools palette on the left side of the WED window.

- Click the image to select it.

Notice the square graphics on each corner and center of the image. These are "handles" that allow you to click and drag the image. You don't want to resize your image interactively. Rather,  you will enter the coordinate values for each of the handles located at each corner of the image.

- With the Vertex tool, drag a small box around one of the square vertex handles.

On the right side of WED, in the lower window, you should see the properties for the handle you have just selected. This window will always show the current properties for any object you have selected.

- Click in the blue highlighted area corresponding to the latitude and longitude  values and enter the real-world values for this corner of your image.

-Repeat this process for the other three corners of the image.

When you're done, the image should be located in the correct geographic location.

3. GeoTiff:

The third type of image which you can import into WED is known as a GeoTIFF file. This is a standard TIFF image format, but has the coordinate information, similar to what was just discussed in number 2, embedded into the header of the file. The advantage of this format is that you don't have to manually register your image.

**At this point, you should have your airport and an image source loaded into WED.

- From the View menu, choose Zoom Package.

This will zoom the WED map window, on the left side of the WED display, to the extent of both your airport and the imagery.

**If you imported your own image, it may be drawing on top of your airport.

- On the list of airport features on the upper-right side of the WED window, click and drag the reference for your image file to the bottom of the list so it is below all the airport features.

**Very important: To make sure you don't accidentally drag your image on your map and change its location, click the pad lock icon next to the image to lock its position. You can also click the icon that looks like an eye to turn off the visibility for that feature. This is often useful when you have several overlapping features and need to simplify your map display.

You should now see both the airport geometry and the imagery.

Now you can click and drag the airport into position and start editing vertices as necessary. By clicking on any of the airport components, you can change their properties, like lighting, pavement type, etc., for that component. Remember that the properties are shown in the lower right window.

For compete help with the tools on the tools palette, choose Help, then click WED User's Guide.

- When you're done editing your airport, click File, then click Export apt.dat.

- Browse to the workspace that you specified when you started your new WED project.

**Make sure to save the file as apt.dat. X-Plane will look for this file name when loading your new airport.

- Save your WED project by choosing Save, under the File menu.

- Exit WED, by choosing File, then Exit.

To fly with your new airport:

- With your operating system, Mac or Windows, create a new folder in your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder.

You may name this folder whatever you like. For example, if you made edits to the Calistoga airport as shown at the beginning of this tutorial, you could create a new Calistoga folder.

- In the Calistoga folder, create another folder called Earth nav data.

- Copy the apt.dat file that you exported from WED, into the new Earth nav data folder you just created.

When X-Plane loads, it should override its default airport file with your new improved one.

Go fly!

This tutorial is meant to cover some of the basic startup information necessary before using the WED editing tools. The WED help covers the use of these tools very well and I would encourage you to spend a few minutes and read through the help file to familiarize yourself with the use of the different tools available. The best way to learn is to start experimenting with the tools on your own. As long as you don't save or don't export, you can't hurt anything.  

One very useful WED resource, in addition to the native WED Help, is Robin Peel's scenery Web pages:

http://data.x-plane.com/designers.html

Scroll down to the Hints and Tips section of the page, which has many excellent suggestions for editing with WED's tools.

Another useful resource is the X-Plane scenery guidelines page.

http://scenery.x-plane.com/library.php?doc=apt_guidelines.php

**Useful tip: The most useful WED command is the Undo command under the Edit menu.  ;D

Enjoy!