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And MCX, as MCX allows some added functions that ADE does not (such as spectral and night textures.)
Both tools should be learned by all beginning-moderate designers.
I'm confused. Model Converter X and Airport Design Editor complement each other. They don't try to do the same things, but it is true that both are essential as are a number of other applications.
Art
They are not essential, but they sure do make this easier
All that is essential is listed in the SDK's, anything outside of that (ADE, MCX,FSDS, etc) are icing on the cake.
Slight correction - FSDS is a modellling program -for flightsim - like gmax - that produces an output that is then processed with the SDKs. Other programs are icing on the cake.