This is not a help book to Abacus' Airport and Scenery Designer, but a guide book to help you to get started. All technical information should be in the manual that came with the program. Consult the manual if you are not sure about something. You can also contact Abacus tech support if needed.

Getting Started

To begin your voyage as a scenery designer you need to get one of the scenery designing programs. First off, you need to select a Flight Simulator. Preferably Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 98 or 2000. Once you have obtained MSFS you can now choose the scenery designer program to create your masterpiece. There are many products such as: Airport 2.5, Abacus Airport and Scenery Designer, Apollo Scenery Designer, and many more commercial and freeware designers out on the market. I would suggest Abacus' Airport and Scenery Designer (ASD). This program is very easy to use and many beginners and professional scenery designers use it. ASD will be the primary focus of this scenery designer's guide. For further information about ASD go to www.abacuspub.com

Once you get your main scenery design program you now should choose what area you want to model. I would start with your hometown area and airport. I started off by making the airport of Algona, this was the first choice in ASD demo that I was using at the time. I used this airport to figure out the ins and outs of ASD. I also found out many things about flying and how airports are constructed and also overall concept of designing a safe airport.

Once you install ASD you need to put in your ID and SN number (this would also be a great time to register your product). After that, you will need to set up ASD to work with FS98 or FS2000. To setup go to the file on the top menu and then to preferences below that. When the preferences window comes up you will see many separate sections. You should already be in the general tab window. Here you can pick your FS version and the Latitude and Longitude for your scenery.

Next you can choose how you want ASD to relate to you by things like confirmed deletions and coasts behind your scenery. After you have done that, choose your CD-ROM drive and your FS path. Once you have finished the general preferences click on the Compiler tab. SCASM comes with ASD and you should have SCASM enabled. You can also change your macro path. You can check the two features at the bottom for easier use, depending on your liking. You can also go through the other tabs and set ASD to fit your profile. Go ahead and explore to see what you can do and change. This is a good time to go to the Taxiway tab and set the width and the texture asphalt.r8, concrete.r8, and color f002 or f003 depending on what your airport tarmac and taxiways are made of. Once you have a better understanding of how ASD works you can tweak the preferences to make it easier for you.

Now that you have ASD set up and your scenery picked out, now is a good time to pick the area you are doing of scenery. You should get as much information on your area as possible depending on how detailed you want to get. First I would get information on the airport you are to model. A great online source is www.airnav.com. Airnav.com has information on almost every public airport in the US. I would also get a satellite photograph (if possible) from www.terraserver.com. In the search box put the name of your airport and voila! Now choose the airport from the list and there you have your airport satellite picture. You can fine tune the picture as needed by zooming in or enlarging it. Another good source of information is either an airport diagram book, which is good if you are modeling whole states, and Jeppesen charts. The more information you have on your airport, the better your airport will look in the long run. You can also get more detailed with more information. It is also a good idea to draw your airport and how you want it to look on a piece of paper. This will help if you are not making a full replica of the airport. It will reduce overcrowding so you can see what you want and not all the other stuff in the picture. If you can get any information like pictures and a general latitude and longitude and some runway information from airnav.com, I would suggest that you use the MSFS version of the airport as a guide. We will discuss that later.

From Paper To Program

Now you are ready to begin making the replica of your airport. First you have to set up your map properties. Go to Edit in the top menu and then to map properties. Once you have filled in the copyright, the scenery directory, and the scenery menu, then choose the place where your airport will be. You should check the Files tab to make sure that the outlet path is the same as what your .scb file is in. If not, change it to what the .scb file will be in. The .scb is the file used by ASD to store your airport and maps.

If you don't have accurate lat. and long. (latitude and Longitude) coordinates, you could start from the ASD wizard even if you have good information. Go up to the File menu and click on ASD wizard. You will get a list of the state and airport that ASD will create. Just pick your state and search for your airport. Sometimes ASD will not have your airport in the listings because it is a small airport. In this situation you will have to do the best you can with your lat. and long. coordinates, because you will have to put them in manually in the airport properties box. You can fill in the Airport name and the ID. This is also where you can fill in the lat. and long. coordinates and the rest of the information such as elevation. If your airport has an ATIS you can click on that tab and put in the frequency and desired message. You can go through the other tabs and fill in the complexity and other features you want in your airport.

To start off, click the runway tool on the toolbar and drag it to any length. Once you have done this, you can right click and then go into the runway properties. Here you can put in the latitude and longitude of the runway from the information that you got off a chart or airnav.com. If the runway lat. and long. is not available, just make an educated guess. Once you have the runway properties filled out, you can adjust the length and width as needed. You can also set the number and the angle of the runway. When you click on the next tab you can set the intensity of the lights and whether the runway has PCL (pilot controlled lighting) and its frequency. You can also set the RCLS or Runway Center Line lighting system. The approach lights are set if you click on threshold under the runway you want. Select what kind of runway approach lights you want and the REIL (Runway End Identifier Lights). After that, click on the VASI/PAPI and select the kind of approach system your runway uses. Don't worry about the slope and other features at the bottom, unless you have extra detailed information about the airport. Click on the Feature tab and you can select what your runway will have as far as pavement markings. Here you can also select if your runway will have an extension and displaced threshold. In the Menu tab click enable, and you can select the name in which your airport runway will appear in the FS directory. You can leave the other boxes at the default values. Click OK, and you will have your runway placed. Zoom in or out until you have a good view of the newly paved surface.

Next click on the polygon tool. As you should have already read in the ASD manual, click and point where you want your polygon to go. Use this for the grass around the airport and leave enough room for the tarmac and taxiways, including buildings and hangars. On the first tab of the polygon features, click the Airport Property box and the surface should be default. After you have done that, go to the next tab. In the texture box type grass.r8 and in the color box type f021. This will make your polygon have a grass texture and appear green in the scenery designer. Once you have the grass polygon done, find a nice place to place your tarmac on top of the green polygon. Click and drag as done before you have your preferred shape, and fill in the properties the same way, except for the Texture/Color tab. In this tab make the polygon texture either asphalt.r8 or concrete.r8 and the color f002 or f003. The asphalt.r8 will make the polygon appear in the asphalt texture and the color in the designer will be a dark gray. This applies to the concrete.r8 and color. It is a good idea to make the textures and colors correspond with the Taxiway settings you fit in the beginning. This will eliminate bleedthrough and make your scenery look nicer. If you want to have different textures, make polygons meet up exactly. This can be done when you have a better idea of how to use ASD to the fullest. Add any other polygons where you think you might need a tarmac for a building or a hangar. You can remove them later if you are not using them.

To add a taxiway click where you want it. Try at one end of a runway. Stretch it out how far you want it to go. Click once to make it a point where it will stay, then drag again to the other end of the runway and do the same thing in reverse order and then double clicking to put the taxiway down. The end product will look like a big U with the ends of the U connecting with the ends of the runway. To add segments in the area between the runway and the taxiway do the same as above and stop after going out to the taxiway and then stopping or lay a point and continue on to the tarmac. Continue this until you have the taxiways complete.

To add a building, click on the building tool and click and drag to about the length you want. Right click to get to the properties and fine tune the length and width of the building. You can also make the building octagonal or with an inclined roof. Click on the FS98 building style tab to make the standard building type and click on the FS2000 building style tab to set the building types for FS2000. I'm new to FS2000 building types, but I can discuss the FS98 styles. You will have 8 styles and you can pick which sides you want to show (which comes in handy for densely packed building areas). In the preview you can check out what kind of texture your building will have and what it will look like. Once you are done with the building, click on the middle of it and drag it to your desired location.

To add a hangar click on the hangar icon and do the same as you did with the building. In the Style tab you can pick your style of hangar, the dimensions and position, and the special features. These can make every hangar you make look different in some way or another. Once done click on the texture/color tab. Here you can pick a texture or color for your hangar like you did in the polygon and taxiway scenarios.

If your airport has a tower then go ahead and add one by going to Insert then Tower. Right click on the tower and then to properties. Add the textures you want and the width and type of tower you want. This part should be pretty easy!

Those are the general makings of an airport. You can add more runways and buildings to make your airport complete along with hangars and tarmacs. Just remember what you put down first, as far as taxiways and polygons are concerned, will be on the bottom just like a cake.

From Beginner To Intermediate Designer

align="left" hspace="10" width="328" height="363"> Now that you have figured out he basics of ASD, you can begin to expand your knowledge and create even more realistic airports. We will begin by adding an ILS or Instrument Landing System. To add an ILS go to the Insert menu and select insert ILS. A menu will pop up, and have a list of runways that are at your airport. To add an ILS to one of the runways, click the box next to the runway you've chosen. Then select the markers you want. Information about the ILS of an airport can be found at www.airnav.com. After you selected the markers, a properties menu should then come up. In the General tab select the ID and the name of the ILS. You also want to set the frequency. You can also reset the range but I usually leave it at the default number. When you select the ILS tab you can change the different items such as the glideslope and the threshold crossing height depending if you have the information regarding this. If not, just leave the numbers at the default value. In the VOR tab you can set what kind of transmitter you will have. You can also use the DME or Distance Measuring Equipment which is helpful to see how far you are from the VOR. The VORTAC is basically the same thing as a VOR plus DME. On the markers page you can set the markers to correspond the real life airport.

To insert a beacon click on the little circle with a star inside. Click on the icon and then click the area where you want the beacon to go. Right click on the beacon and select Properties. If you want a regular pole beacon, leave the style at the default or you can pick a variety of lights and poles. You can select what other graphic things such as shadows or how many light arms are on your street lamp if you're putting in a parking lot. You can choose from an endless features list. Click on the color tab. Select you color for the day. When choosing your color at night be sure to pick the color intensity. This will ensure your beacon will be seen at night.

Here is a way that pilots distinguish airports from one another. The color code is as follows:

• White and Green = lighted land airport (most common)
• White and Yellow = lighted water airport (very rare)
• Green, White and Yellow = lighted heliport
• Green, White and White = lighted military field (very common)

Use the colors to make your airport distinguishable to tell other pilots what kind of airport it is.

Sometimes lines can get tricky to place because they might not line up or you might accidentally make them too small. Well first off to place a line, click on the Insert menu and then click line. To set the first point click where you want it to go and then drag out, the same you would with the taxiways, and then click where you want the line to end. Make a line go in increments of 45º by holding down [Shift] after placing the first point. This can help in many ways. Right click on the line to edit the colors and what kind of line you want and the different kinds of special properties concerning a line. You can also drag the line to the correct spot by clicking on it and then dragging it to the location you want.

A macro is a precision object that is not part of ASD. ASD has been integrated to be able to handle these macros. Macros come in many shapes and forms and I have many on my site. To place a macro go to the insert menu and click macro. To place it on the airport diagram click where you want it to go. Double click or right click on the macro to bring up the macro properties. Here you can change the rotation in degrees, the lat. and long., and sometimes other things. The other things are called arguments. These arguments can be changed depending on what they say. For example a house you might be able to rotate it and change the lat. and long. but also change the width, length, and the color of the roof and building. The length and width are measured in meters and the rotation is measured in degrees like the hangars and buildings.

I think signs are one of the most complicated part of ASD. To place a sign, go to the Insert menu and click Sign. Click a place where you want a sign and then double click on the sign to bring up the properties. Here you can select what kind of sign you want, the size, and other features such as the rotation. Click on the message properties to insert your message and you can also change the sign depending on your message. I will not go into further detail on this for it is too complicated, and the ASD manual should cover this better than I can. For information on the sign types, use the file 5345-44f.pdf for Acrobat Reader.

The final step is to compile your scenery. Go to the File tab and then Compile tab. Now is a good time to save your scenery too. To compile scenery click the compile button and it will be compiled unless you have an error. Most errors can be easily fixed maybe because you forgot to enter a texture in a polygon or something. Use the ASD manual for help or e-mail the Abacus tech support team and they will help you with any errors.

You have gone from just a beginner to an intermediate designer! The quest is not over yet. To continue your journey you will have to expand your scenery and probably place it on the web at FlightSim.Com. You'll get files from many other people such as yourself. Everyday many hundreds of people make scenery and now you will be a part of the fun and will hopefully have fun flying around your creation as well as making it. The reward that you'll get is very high, when knowing others are using your scenery!

Jim Sushinski
mrjkr@redrose.net