WorldEditor 1.2 is done and declared final!

Laminar Research, creators of the X-Plane flight simulator franchise, is pleased to announce the availability of WorldEditor for X-Plane (WED) version 1.2.

WorldEditor is an airport scenery creation and editing tool for Laminar’s X-Plane.  WED is intuitive and easy-to-use, as it features drag-and-drop scenery creation in a graphical environment that is designed for the typical X-Plane user.

WorldEditor takes a graphical CAD-like approach to creating airports.  All airports are made up from a collection of different items or entities of a specific type.  For example; runways, taxiways, windsocks, signs, and buildings.   A runway has length, width, surface type, lighting and taxiway signs for example.   WED is organized to create and edit each of these different items on an individual basis, so a user can add an item, then edit it’s characteristics or attributes at will.

A key feature of WorldEditor is the ability for a user to create an airport scenery and then send his or her creation to Laminar’s airport scenery database service.  Once checked by Laminar for acceptability it is then included in the airport data when X-Plane users receive automatic X-Plane updates from Laminar.

Robin is ready to accept submissions of airport layouts including ATC traffic flows and default airport object placements using the new “Export for Global Database” function.  We are also working on tutorials and additional documentation beyond the WED user manual.

About Ben Supnik

Ben is a software engineer who works on X-Plane; he spends most of his days drinking coffee and swearing at the computer -- sometimes at the same time.

27 comments on “WorldEditor 1.2 is Final (Finally)

  1. What is the situation if the airport scenery is already in your custom scenery folder?

    Is it transferred to the list or do you get double of the same scenery?

    1. If the custom airport is properly made, it will have exclusion zones around it and will exclude the version of the airport from Robin’s database; but you can configure which airport is high priority by editing the scenery ini file.

      1. but what if it is Ben the same WED scenery by the same author? no difference.

        Another point off subject is that I understand that Laminar like to have their own default files and I respect that, but why can’t Jack’s (FlyJSim) hi-Def runways and Chris K’s wide yellow lines be made the default, as they are mostly all default by the majority of users now anyway, and you have to click through them all every time you do an upload so they are not replaced…

        1. There is no formal mechanism to replace the built-in artwork for non-scenery packs, so there is no way for them to create an add-on that can safely replace the existing sim files without interference from the installer.

  2. Thanks for the final WED. A big releaf I suppose. I have tried to build some airports, but I ‘d like to have the lego bricks more lego. I mean many objects are composed of more objects, e.g. a hangar have also a parkingplace with cars. For me It would be better if all the objects are seperated, so you have more control to recreate the real atmosphere of the airport.

  3. Thanks for this. I do plan on contributing at some stage. 26,000 airports? I think I can add one or two =)

  4. Linux executable is hosed (1.10 works fine). Where do I file the bug report?

      1. Thanks Ben. Turns out that the executable is 64-bit. You might want to note that as the page makes the broad statement that WED will run on anything that can run v9. v9 being 32-bit…… well, you get picture 🙂

          1. heh, heh, I run both. Just happened to be on 32-bit when I tested initially. I’ll have to roll my own though as yours is built against an older libpng than mine and I don’t get the object previews.

  5. Í didnt find anything in the docs. Is there a slight Chance to a) put some custom routes into it and b) assign vehicles for Animation (e.g. following that route) with a schedule? (e.g. busses, cars, Service vehicles, followme cars…)?

  6. Its working fine Ben. The first time I have used it since trying years ago and I picked a small airport.

    One question which might sound like the latest post, but not exactly. Is there any way to alter or stop roads that come through the airport buildings which are pretty much correctly located in the surrounding terrain.

    Thanks for your work!

  7. I always used WED and OE to make my sceneries (Araucanía, Patagonia and the rest of Chile). But now I am trying to make them without using other libraries or objects (only X-Plane 10.21+ resources). With OE I can use the maps of Bing or ESRI on the background to place houses, etc. in the area. This is not posible with WED. But… if I open again the scenery with WED (to save the apt.dat and the file “for Global Airports”) or with X-Plane 10.22 then the houses from OE are gone. (!!!) Objects like hangars, aircrafts, etc. I’ve put in the scenery with WED, are still usable in OE (move to another location, for example).
    Is it possible to keep usable the objects put in the scenery with OE in WED? and to save them in the apt.dat and “for Global Airports” files? I do not mean objects from other libraries, just those from X-Plane libraries.
    Thanks in advance for your attention.

    PS.- see my sceneries in //xplane.remen.nl

  8. Hi there, great work!
    I managed to complete a small airfield in northern Germany and would like to share it with other X-Planers to populate this great world a bit more.
    But…
    I just have no idea, how I can export it to the Laminar Global Airports database, any hint there? And one more question: as an airport such small as EDHS doen’t have ATC-support, is it essential to have ATC-taxiroutes in your WED-layout?

    1. Export using the “export to global database” function, and send the resulting file to robin@x-plane.com.

      We’re working on more detailed tutorials that will explain this in more detail.

      ATC flow is not necessary now, but someday when we have untowered operations, the flow _will_ be needed for AI planes.

      1. Thank you, got it. Regarding my next project EDHM one thing is really missing: a tool that can flatten the ground. After repositioning the runway to it’s correct position it is bumpy and not so nice anymore, just the same problem as with Aerosoft’s free EDDF RWY26R. Is there any possibility? Seems not an easy task anyway.

        1. If you have airport flattening enabled (and thus the runway _could_ flatten the ground in its old position) then simply edit the boundary polygon. You may have to make the boundary polygon ‘oversized’ as flattening is not precise.

  9. As a novice user of the new WED it is working just fine so far.
    One thing that I would hope for in the near future would be that those objects that are
    available for inclusion into my airport be highlighted by some method.
    I build up an airport for Global Export only to find numerous objects (.obj) that I have
    used cannot be exported.
    Or, just tell us what library to use and how its listed.

    Thanks

  10. The online manaul seemed ok when this thread started but now it only displays the first page. I did send a email to support but did not get the response I had hoped for. Is there a good reason this is not working now and also can there be a PDF version.

    Thanks Bill

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