Aircraft Designers Resource Center
By Felix Rodriguez
lot
of simmers out there would like to explore the option of learning
to design flightsim aircraft. Where do we start this process? Well,
we have come up with a solution to help you out. After reading the
content listed here, hopefully you will be able to make a decision
on what is best for you. Note this is not a tutorial. We are
providing this information as a resource to help those who do not
know where to begin. Designing aircraft takes a lot of skill and
patience. Do not expect to roll out your first aircraft in a matter
of hours. If you do need help along the way, we have an aircraft
designers message forum, where you may post questions to other
aircraft designers. You can go to this message area by clicking
here.
New tools are being developed all the time. If you know of an aircraft design tool that is not listed here please contact us at webmaster@flightsim.com and let us know about it.
This program is the default modeling program, supported by the Microsoft/ACES developement team, andaround which the SDKs are written.The executables are installed with the SDKs off the FS-X Deluxe Edition disc, and free registration at TurboSquid is required. This is a free version of 3DSMax and as such, has many of the powerful modelling tools and features.
gmax 1.2 from Autodesk
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FS Design Studio 3.5 from Abacus
FS Design Studio is at the same time flight sim friendly and powerful. This software is the first choice for tens of thousands of Flight Simulation modelers worldwide and provides an easy way to make professional quality aircraft and quality 3D scenery that you'll be proud of. Of the tens of thousands of aircraft available for Flight Simulator, the overwhelming number of them were made with FS Design Studio. This newest version adds the latest visual techniques and graphic effects to an already large repertoire of commands, time-saving shortcuts, and comfortable user interface. Together they'll let you create any kind of accurate, detailed textured models at record speed. FS Design Studio puts an aircraft factory at your fingertips. Now modelers are able to create even more accurate and great looking aircraft and "knock-your-socks off" 3D scenery.. With FSDS you can create models that take advantage of the most of the latest features of the FS2004 and FS-X SDKs. |
Flight Simulator Repaint Version 2 (FSX/FS2004)
FS Repaint is the absolute simplest way to change the look your
Flight Simulator aircraft!
This clever software package was originally developed several years
ago by the team of Jorge Santoro and Marco Paulo. Now they've
revamped this popular utility to support the aircraft of Flight
Simulator X.FS Repaint is the ready for you to make small changes
or paint a whole fleet of aircraft
http://www.fspilotshop.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=54&products_id=1247
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FS Panel Studio by Ed Struzynski
Design and Modify Cockpits And Instrument Panels With The
Greatest of Ease
Quite simply FS Panel Studio® is the best tool available for
creating and editing Microsoft Flight Simulator panels – in fact
pretty much any panel from any Microsoft simulator, from Combat
Flight Simulator through to Flight Simulator X.The fully graphical
interface lets you drag, drop and stretch your gauges and
immediately see the results. You don't have to be a programmer or
understand Microsoft Flight Simulator panel.cfg file syntax to
create great looking custom Panels. Design or modify a Panel in
minutes in one session. See exactly what you'll get when you run
Flight Simulator. Use your mouse to add, delete, move and resize
gauges. Stretch gauge widths or heights independently for a perfect
fit. Add windows and set their positions with 1 pixel accuracy. For
the first time you can create new gauges, and edit (using your
favourite bitmap editor) any gauge bitmap for a truly unique panel.
FS Panel Studio® is written in C++ to make it small and blazingly
fast. No long waits for screen redraws. Simply the best panel
editor available.
http://www.fspilotshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=289
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Custom Panel Designer from Abacus
Until now, panel design has been relegated to the brave and the skilled. These are users who can outlast the lengthy, tedious trial-and-error sessions while working their way through the cryptic details and number shuffling to complete that final panel.cfg.Custom Panel Designer does away with all of the experimentation and introduces an all new graphical drag-and-drop interface. Now anyone can use Custom Panel Designer to make their own instrument panels. Whether you're making a panel from scratch or tweaking one just the way you like it, Custom Panel Designer is the can do program.
http://www.pcaviator.com/shop/viewAProduct.php?pid=156
AirWrench Jerry Beckwith
AirWrench is a new Windows-based flight dynamics ‘editor’ written entirely in C++. It has been designed to create and tune flight dynamics files for CFS2, CFS3, FS2002, FS2004, and FSX with point and click simplicity.
AirEd By William Roth
AirEd is a freeware utility that can edit every data member of an .air file. The .air file specifies the flight dynamics of an FS98, FS2000 or CFS aircraft but has no effect on the visual model.Download AirEd
DXTBMP by Martin Wright
16/24/32 bit and DXT Extended Bitmap Manipulation for FS2000, FS2002, FS2004, FS-X, CFS2 and CFS3. This short description does not really convey the widespread use of this utility to convert the textures used in Flight Simulator into a a format that can easily be read by paint editors.
http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/
Paint Shop Pro From COREL
Paint Shop Pro is an affordable yet professional graphics utility suitable for doing repaints and creating any aircraft textures. You can create, edit, draw and paint any type of graphic so it's usable for other purposes such as Web site design.
FS Texture Editor by Toby Vickers
FS Texture Editor is a freeware program that allows you to edit all types of Flight Simulator texture files. It works with any version from FS5 on up.We hope that after reading this resource page you will have made up your mind on what software is right for you and your flightsim needs for creating the best in aircraft design and mobility. Once again keep in mind that this is not a tutorial on how to create FS aircraft. We are merely providing this information to you as a resource. A lot of simmers wanting to get into the aircraft designing and building stages do not know where to begin. This resource page will help anyone wanting information on where to start. Happy designing!