MSFS Can we open third party airport’s .bgl with ADE in order to edit it ?

[kvari]

Hey,

Is it possible to open a third party airport’s .bgl that has the taxiway layout in it with ADE and edit it ?

If so, can anyone explain me how ?

Thnx !

 

[Mikael]

You are not alone with that question, it keeps being asked on so many forums. It used to be so simple in FSX and P3D with ADE to just go in and update a frequency, a parking spot or correct some taxi links or whatever for your favorite payware addon by opening and editing the AFCAD and that was that!.... With MSFS after some fiddling around I actually managed to correct a pakring spot size and it worked but all terminal buildings dissapeared so I gave up

Whenever you get help from around the web as nice as it is, it always refers to updating stock airports not payware or other freeware airports.

 

[Kaiii3]

you can open 3rd party airports, when they are not provided via the internal MSFS marketplace. Airports sold via the internal marketplace are encrypted and you can not edit them.

 

[Mikael]

Yes I am working to update a free airport found on flightsim.to. I just want to add some more gates so I "create project from MSFS bgl" then I fill in ident, creator and project name and GO. Then I add the bgl containing the airport data. I then need to add a title and description. Then I do my minor edits to the airport and click "Build Project" and I get "Error code 1073741515"

Do I need to add something in the selections for Asset Groups"? or Project version, Packages folder, Output folder and temp output folder?

the scenery itself from the freeware creator has a scenery folder with a sub folder Global containing a texture folder and modelLib.BGL and a World folder with a subfolder called scenery containing three bgl files (one of which is the airport data)

 

[Mikael]

So I try and update to the latest ADE version and doing the same stuff as above I dont even get to the ADE edit airport screen but rather get this:

 

[Mikael]

as well as this

 

[GuidoH]

Ok, to use a flightsim.to airport and use it is for personal use only. You are not allowed to publish the work of other people without their explicit confirmation, pls be aware of that.
If conversion through ADE is not working, check the msfsbglxml converter that is also available for free. this might help to get more details about errors. The bgl might have been created with an older version of (SU1-SU6) that might have caused the reported errors.

msfsbglxml - convert MSFS (2020) BGL files to XML

Does this program still work? All I get are error messages: msfsbglxml : The term 'msfsbglxml' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At...

www.fsdeveloper.com

 

[scruffyduck]

Well I am just catching up on this and the answer is that you can open third party bgl files with ADE. However (and this is nothing to do with ADE) MSFS airport projects are more complicated than just opening a bgl file. They are much more complicated to work with than FSX/P3D

The first thing I am asking is that you have a clean installation of the latest version of ADE 2020. That is version Alpha 21 HF4 https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/ade-2020-alpha-21-hotfix-4.454244/

The second thing I am asking is are you using the MS or Steam edition of the sim

The third thing is whether you have the latest MSFS SDK installed and that ADE is pointing at it.

Please also read the help which comes with ADE 2020 about things like asset groups: http://scruffyduck.org.uk/ade_2020_help/

Finally (for now) please give me the link to download the free airport you are trying to modify.

 

[Mikael]

Thank you very much for taking the time!
Yes I have the latest SDK from Microsoft and the ADE with the latest HF4 and ADE is pointing to it (Configs, Content and SDK)
I am using the MS edition of MSFS
The link to the free airport on Flightsim.to is https://flightsim.to/file/2176/esge-viared

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Mikael. The 3rd party esge-viared xml has some problems. I used Airport2BGL to decompile it, and it has multiple errors in it's syntax, possibly due to changes in MSFS. But the airport is extremely simple. Why not simply use the default esge as a start for your customization in ADE?

 

[Mikael]

Hi Dick. The thing is that altough its simple the developer still uses some very nice custom buildings, I really dont want to loose those in the process of starting fresh from default airport. Or do you mean build from scratch and incorporate his stuff somehow? I guess that may perhaps violate the freeware license and I dont want to go in that direction.

I have other airport of his that are built later and that I also am interested to update, perhaps they function better:

ESGR Skövde Airport for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

✓ ESGR Skövde Airport is a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 mod created by Borgillios. Download for free to enhance your experience in MSFS 2020.

flightsim.to

 

[scruffyduck]

Seems to have taxi signs at size 0 and the ILS KOG appears multiple times. This may be deliberate obfuscation. I will see if I can repair it but its a long shot.

 

[scruffyduck]

You could use the objects in the project since they are in the package in a bgl file. That may effectively break copyright but if you are using them for just your own use then it is probably OK.

 

[Mikael]

My biggest and kind of only real concern with his airports in general is that he uses parking radius 5 for some reason and that is just too small for most AI GA traffic so thay land but dissapear.

 

[scruffyduck]

Removed the false ILS and corrected the sign size value to "SIZE3" got things to load

Scenery placement is in a separate bgl file to the airport along with terrain elements. These should work alongside a modified airport bgl file

 

[scruffyduck]

ESGR loads fine

The object placement is there - custom - but needs a bit of work. Nothing is a straight forward as for FSX/P3D.

 

[scruffyduck]

My biggest and kind of only real concern with his airports in general is that he uses parking radius 5 for some reason and that is just too small for most AI GA traffic so thay land but dissapear.

That is a simple fix but.....

• As a start get the airport bgl file (assuming you can find it).
• Load it into ADE as a project.
• Change the things you want to change and build it.
• Find the airport bgl file in this new project.
• Backup the original in the addon package and replace it with your update

 

[tupues]

I just stumbled across this thread as I have been trying a similar thing albeit with payware. Does anyone know if FSDT KORD can be opened in the same fashion? I tried the usual KORD.bgl in the scenery folder but get the message that the file does not contain an airport. Is there anywhere else where I might find it. I assumed it would be that file since it has the same name as its counterpart in P3D...

 

[scruffyduck]

I just stumbled across this thread as I have been trying a similar thing albeit with payware. Does anyone know if FSDT KORD can be opened in the same fashion? I tried the usual KORD.bgl in the scenery folder but get the message that the file does not contain an airport. Is there anywhere else where I might find it. I assumed it would be that file since it has the same name as its counterpart in P3D...

Either you are trying to open the wrong bgl file or more likely it is encrypted so you won't be able to edit it.

 

[Mikael]

Thanks for the easy to follow list of actions. This is kind of what I have been doing and I do see result of my changes to parking radius etc but generally buildings and other stuff dissapear. Its like building are not saved with the airport file in this process and I loose them.