SDK Tutorial #3 - Adding taxiways and parking - Microsoft Flight Simulator

This tutorial shows how to add taxiways, aprons, parking and gates to your airports, and how to link them up correctly so that the ATC and AI can use them properly.
I plan to create more tutorials covering all aspects of airport creation, and I’ll be adding those to the tutorial playlist below. If you have any questions or there’s anything you would like to see in a future tutorial let me know!
More SDK tutorials:
• Microsoft Flight Simul...
0:00 Load the airport
0:40 How to add taxiways
3:18 How to make junctions
4:04 Add hold short markings
6:02 Link up the runway
7:55 How to create aprons
9:15 How to place parking
10:24 How to add gates
11:58 Join the parking to taxiways
12:40 Set the parking name
14:02 Set the parking suffix
15:06 Adding taxiway names
16:46 Visual debugging features
17:44 Loading into the game
18:33 Taxing to the runway
19:28 Let's fly a quick traffic pattern
21:02 Taxi back to the parking
21:50 Outro

[@gracebyseven]

I was having the issue with ATC where they wouldn't give me a route, but this video solved it! Keep them coming BennyBoy!

[@GuillermoZS]

One of the best tutorials on this. Tank you very much!

[@gracebyseven]

You're the man Benney!! These tutorials are EPIC! Simple and to the point!! As for requests, I'd love to see a tutorial on how to import custom taxiways (as flat objects) via the "projected mesh" method. Thanks and keep these coming !!

[@Benney]

Great to hear! I've had a little look at projected meshes, they definitely look interesting. I can see many uses for them for things like custom apron/taxiway markings.

[@gracebyseven]

@@Benney indeed! Look forward to seeing you make an awesome tutorial on that too! :)

[@AdnanYILMAZaday]

This is the only video I could find on how to draw the line that will connect the taxiway to the gates. Thank you... ( 12:00 )

[@Argaeus]

Learned something else today. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@missamo80]

This was great! I got all the taxiways in for my local airport, and even figured out how to draw a custom helipad and add a windsock. I'm sure you already have a long list of things to cover in future videos but here are a few I'd love: 1. How to get rid of the default satellite ground and replace with other stuff. There are places at my airport where parked airplane wings from the satellite view are poking out from under my new taxiways. 2. How to add fences :) 3. How to add PAPI lights

[@missamo80]

A few other things I'd like to know: 1. How to delete the windsock that the game has at my airport (it's in the wrong spot) 2. How to hide/remove marshallers/equipment at GA parking spaces. My airport is tiny and there shouldn't be any people/equipment spawned at the GA spots.

[@Benney]

Good ideas! I've noted them down in my planning for future episodes.

[@Fury2291]

Thank you. Very helpful

[@PieknyRoman81]

Thank You Benney! Great work and one of most useful tutorials of all on YT. I have question about roads on aprons and outside of terminal. How to creat them?

[@elgroxo]

Thank you so much

[@SuperVertrix]

Thank you for your tutorials. By following them, I was able to add a missing airport in the country of Guatemala (with tower frequencies!) Now, if I could only figure out how to add missing NAVAIDS.... Cheers!

[@Benney]

Glad I could help! There is a sample project in the SDK folder called "SimpleNavData" which should allow you to edit thinks like NAVAIDS. The developer documentation goes over how to use this in your project. I'll have to make a video about it once I've had a play myself.

[@SuperVertrix]

@@Benney Awesome! I'll take a look at it.

[@TheBullethead]

Greatly appreciated

[@Benney]

You're welcome!

[@simairflyer]

THANK YOU so very much for this video - I was really struggling but now it all came clear. My only question is - How do you get the "T" marking at the parking spot?

[@fergatROn]

Wow @benneyboy444 your tutorials are great! Thank you for doing them. Do you plan to talk about building a UI? Also; do you know if there is persistent data I can manage? I want to create an economy add-on for the Xbox community. I'm guessing it'll deal with other objects like the MAP, ICONS and possibly interacting with a screen in-game.

[@RPPerry1984]

Hey @BenneyBoy444, Thank you so much for the tutorials. Is there any way you could cover another video on Intersecting Runways and Multiple Runways / Taxiways? I have the single Runway bit down thanks to you, but I have a few airports with multiple and intersecting runways and I'm not sure how to properly group the paths. Cheers!

[@vinaysaran]

Please make a tutorial on adding functional fuel station so to call a fuel truck...

[@zaidooos]

can you please make a vid on how to enhance aig parking spot by icao code for existing scenery that will be really helpful and thanks

[@rotol]

Hi there! You have helped to come back to redesigning my local airports. I Have done a few of them but there is a Bug on one of them. One section between taxiway points when I start my flight from that airport looks normal like when I originally did. But when I fly out to another destination and come back, That section look wider that the main runway. I re-did the taxiways and it still happens after I return back. Any Suggestions? Thanks, Robert

[@paolovittorini2145]

These are the best tutorials I've seen so far. In 10 minutes I got my extra objects in the sim. But one question: can I add more parking spots to a default airport without rebuilding it from scratch? The same for adjusting taxiways paths on the apron and add lights to some taxiways?

[@Benney]

That's good to hear! If you don't specify delete options on the airport object properties then the existing airport will still be there after you make your additions. Things like parking/taxiways might not work quite right though as I doubt you'd be able to link the taxiway path to the existing network.

[@harmandeepsingh6598]

Thanks a lot for these videos. I have 1 big problem, I cant see red or white dot next to my cursor either I checked or uncheck the option for 1 click placing.

[@Magyar9Andras]

Thanks for the series of editing! How can I add a turning circle at the end of a runway?

[@Benney]

You can just draw out the turning circle using taxiway paths as usual. If you need the pavement to be different from the taxiway paths then consider using an apron to fill in the gaps. I'm not too sure if any AI will make sure of the taxiway path though, but you can at least draw out the lines and lighting for your turning circle.

[@gavanwhatever8196]

If it's a struggle to make out the details in the satellite image, open up google maps in a browser window. I believe it is possible to import google images into your project but not sure how as yet.

[@Benney]

Yeah importing Google satellite imagery is possible but it doesn't massively help. I always have multiple satellite imagery websites open when I'm so I can compare details between them!

[@MorrisseysMonkey]

Makin an airport(As I have done others) But in this one when I have placed my parking spaces(3 of them) and when I click 'Fly' I get the loading screen and then a CTD.

[@Ivan-oj1tk]

Dear friend BenneyBoy444, First a thousand thanks for all your SDK tutorials. I have a question for you and I hope you can answer it: Because I can't run the ATIS at my airport, it's an airport that didn't come by default in the simulator, but I'm building it from the beginning, I've dealt with the SDK's NAVDATA examples but I haven't been successful. Will you have any ideas for me? Thank you for your tutorials and for your attention to my question. Sincerely.

[@poxbottle]

This is a brilliant video, thanks for sharing. One question, I've added taxiway paths and enabled center and edge lighting however only the center lighting shows up, none of the blue lights show up at all. Any ideas?

[@Benney]

Not too sure about that one unfortunately, I've yet to properly look into lighting and non of my airports I'm editing have edge markings.

[@aviationblaise8027]

so can you add things like jetbridges and stuff on to an airport that's already in msfs

[@kevincolton6891]

Hi Benney, I love your tutorials, trying to rebuild where I work. do you know how to add different texture on the runway? For instance our runway at EGOS RWY 36 has a large amount concrete on the thresholds but tried doing the patch but not getting much look. Do you have anymore content coming up? Keep up the good work.

[@Benney]

Glad to hear you are finding them useful! You might be able to use an apron to apply a concrete texture over the runway where you need, I've got a video showing how to do a similar thing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hp6kc6CZm9mZqM0 I've been on a short hiatus from MSFS but hope to have some more videos coming soon :)

[@joncorso6103]

Great job, really enjoying this series. Is there some reason at 19:35 the arrows were showing you to go left when you were joining onto the runway, instead of right? A missed step, or something we need to be careful to do?

[@Benney]

Glad you are enjoying the videos! I did notice that when recording and I'm not too sure why it happened. There aren't any taxiway points out there. It may be because I just quickly connected things up for the video, I've never seen it at other airports I've made so maybe a one off?

[@marchamilton74]

i would like to add helipads in my city and have it that you can select it and start on the helipad, how do i do that please

[@eduardogranja6418]

Great tutorial, very much appreciated. I have been able to improve the airports in Ecuador, have added lights to the runways, taxiways, aprons, etc. However, after adding parking to the airports, and checked for scenery errors, the builder is not able to generate the corresponding files for the new scenery to work. What could be wrong? thanks

[@Benney]

You'll have to check in the build console for errors.

[@GamjaField]

Great tutorial. One question, when selecting the runway number, should I select the primary runway number?

[@Benney]

Thanks! I usually do that, but I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not, you'd have to experiment with it. ATC directions seem to work fine using just the primary.

[@sacv2]

Thank you for this tutorial. I've this issue with the ATC sending me to to wrong runway all the time. The main runway must be 07 for takeoff but the ATC alway send me to 25 regardless wind direction. Any way to tell the ATC to only allow take off from runway 07?

[@Benney]

ATC should automatically choose the correct runway depending on wind. Are you sure you're setting both wind direction and gusts, and that your taxiway paths are fully linked to both ends of the runway?

[@robertostopnicki4987]

Hi! You would be proud of me :-) :-) I have managed to fix a very jagged airport (SLLP) in MSFS2020. One problem I have, is that any object that I try to place at a gate (that is not a Jetway), such as boarding stairs, fuel truck, etc. is travelling along without me finding a way to keep it stopped within the assigned gate. I am sure that it is a simple solution, but I just cannot find it. Thank you. For this and again, for the tutorials

[@Benney]

After making this tutorial I found that you must only place jetways as the object for gates. If you don't need a jetway just use parking and set the name to gate.

[@MrMinotaur12]

When I try to generate a taxiway, the only thing I see is the blue line. It never changes in concrete(set at material), does someone know a fix or what I am doing wrong? Thanks for the series Benney, very helpful!

[@sovietwizard1620]

late reply but you need to connect all of the taxiways to one graph, this is what happens to me, it's a temporary thing, also make sure its connected to the runway.

[@HangarStudios713]

I know this is not a new video, but it's very resourceful to anyone new like me. Great Job! Is there a way to designate a Helipad for parking and starting with a helicopter yet?

[@Benney]

That's good to hear! I'm not sure if you can properly do helipads yet since helicopters aren't in the base game.

[@HangarStudios713]

@@Benney I figured out a way, use a polygon and terraform it within the pad, then drop the pad down into it if it's a raised pad like mine, then put an apron on it top of that and if you change the material to something solid and no fuzz(grass) coming out of it and make it transparent viola! instant helipad, I even made it a starting point all courtesy of our tutorial - I just finished it, check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6Crn5hppqaab7M It should be uploaded to Flightsim.to by sometime this morning - B4Gunner Hanger Studio 713. Thanks so much!

[@TDiver-hy3st]

Hello Benney! I am frustrated with ATC not giving me a "Taxi to Gates" option upon arrival at some airports. Could you perhaps recommend the correct tutorial or tutorials to learn how to fix this - if it's possible? I think I have a basic understanding that it has to do with parking sizes and gate/ramp coding for ATC AI to use it?? Thanks for any guidance!!!

[@Moresti1]

Thank you for the video. It’s very informative! I am having an issue though. When I select the taxiwaypoint and normal. After clicking on the ground I only see the blue line. It doesn’t populate the material or anything. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to fix this.

[@willmarr912]

Yeah I have had the same thing since the update yesterday. I had already done most of the taxiways but ones I’ve added since the update yesterday aren’t visual. Hopefully it will get fixed soon

[@gamingcorner6472]

i have the same issue

[@jetkid1230]

Hello there @BennyBoy444 I’m trying to edit a 3rd party scenery to add airline codes such as aal, jbu, baw so that my ai can correctly park and spawn at the right terminals. Pls pls help if you can. Cheers

[@pure4wood501]

Hi. My Parking RAMP-GA-SMALL are in yellow in the Scenery Editor and a "Show Warning" button at the bottom. Do you have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[@ivantammaro]

This is an amazing tutorial, thanks! I have a problem creating a taxiway, is 'invisible', it's just the 2 points and the path but no matterial is shown. Any idea what I'm missing?

[@Benney]

You need to make sure the points are connected together to make a taxiway path. Then in the properties of the path make sure Draw Sufrace is checked. I show how to do this at around 1:20.

[@ivantammaro]

@@Benney Thanks for answering but I wasn't doing something wrong! I've just found this forums.flightsimulator.com/t/taxiways-do-not-draw-in-project-after-sim-update-3/375845 There is a problem with the last sim update

[@grafd.6587]

Thank you for your tutorials. I have a quick, perhaps stupid question: How do you actually start inside the simulation? Do you start a normal flight from the world map at the location you plan on editing and then switch to develop mode camera and start editing? If I want to build an airport from scratch, do I have to start a normal flight, mid air, from the coordinates where I want to create it? Or is there a "cleaner" way?

[@Benney]

No stupid questions here! If you are revamping an existing airport you can just spawn in at that airport like usual. If you were trying to add one from scratch you can either enter lat long coordinates into the world map search and spawn in like you say, or you could spawn in at some airport and use the teleport menu which you find in the toolbar > Windows > Teleport Window. Once you've created your airport and added a runway, you could load it into the game and spawn there from now on.

[@grafd.6587]

@@Benney Thank you for the quick reply! So, that means I will always have to spawn inside/with a plane at first from the main menu. There is no direct way through the actual editor, correct?

[@Benney]

Yeah you have to spawn somewhere to get into the actual game world, then you can teleport/travel anywhere.

[@CesarSMX]

hi again! do you know if you can add a taxi sign directly on the ground or at the hold short?? like a decal or something? or do you have to make a ground poly with blender?

[@Benney]

You mean like taxi numbers on the ground? I think it's possible with custom textures and aprons but I've yet to experiment with that. I've even seen it done at auto-generated airports so I don't know if there is a better way of doing it. It was on my roadmap of videos so I'll have to play around and find the best way.

[@CesarSMX]

@@Benney yes! that is what I meant! thank you! I saw some on default MMMX, and want to make some of those for my hometown airport!

[@fras444]

I am wanting to do a local airport and it has a number of 'A380' split gates, for example gate 19 is split into gate 19L and 19R so two A320s can use them if free. Is it possible to have the same within this game? Is is possible to create a heavy gate 19 and have two small L R gates within that space without any conflicts i.e a 747 spawning or given ATC directions to gate 19 if 19L and R are already attended by a A320 vis versa

[@Benney]

The sim spawns planes with a wingspan smaller than the width of a parking space. So if you placed a large space over two smaller ones then it should spawn the correct aircraft there. I'm not sure what will happen with overlapping parkings though, you'd just need to try it out.

[@vapilot7814]

Can someone tell me how to find the scripts tab

[@sneaky_lari6377]

How you got the blue balls in the sdk? Did they removed that?

[@Despiser25]

Why dont I have any control on where the initial point is placed? It automatically puts it into a different time zone which causes all sorts of grief. One click is even worse. I then have to spend 5 minutes trying to find it and go back where I wanted it.

[@kennethmanning1472]

Hi Benney, I started on a project a few weeks ago to exclude some taxiway lights where they do not belong. I don't know if you noticed but at several airports, there are taxiway edge lights all over the place, even right in the middle where planes taxi. These taxiway lights do not belong inside the yellow line where planes taxi, and some of them you have to taxi around them. I've excluded some of these already but there are still many more, and I did save my project. I opened my saved project to exclude more the taxiway edge lights and every time I click on the Load In Editor in the Inspector, the taxiway edge lights that I have not excluded disappear and I have no way of knowing where to place the exclusion rectangle. The taxiway signs disappear for a second and then they reappear. But the taxiway edge lights never reappear. Why is this happening, and am I doing something wrong here? Ken.

[@MrTrustdesa]

That’s because they are already excluded in the package then, move the compiled package in your Community folder to test.

[@MertAaydin]

Why is the script tab not showing for me? I can create parking spaces but I can't add ground services to the sim..

[@FayettevilleArkansas]

How do you make your taxiways flare out like they do in real life when they intersect a runway? Thanks a bunch!

[@Benney]

Not 100% sure what you mean by flare. I just place as many taxiway points as required to get a nice curve.

[@FayettevilleArkansas]

@@Benney By flare, I mean widen out so that when a taxiway meets a taxiway, or a runway, there is a radius for turning between the intersections. I did figure out how to accomplish this. I create the taxiway, then put an apron under the taxiway that meets the radius of the turn. then add taxiway lights.

[@robiN-mb5oe]

Hey by any chance do u have discord ? because i really want to create airports but the taxiways and runway just isn loading up

[@ART1STPILOT]

Thanks to your tutorial! And i have some question If i building or using simobject through sdk, Does it violate the copyright policy for its use?

[@Benney]

You'd have to check the copyright of the thing you're trying to use - if it's just a default one from the SIM then I don't think so?

[@ART1STPILOT]

@@Benney In summary, If it's Asobo's, it's okay, but it can be a problem if I use other manufacturers' right?

[@Benney]

@@ART1STPILOT Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer ;) but generally don't use stuff that isn't yours or you don't have permission for, that's theft.

[@ART1STPILOT]

@@Benney :D I agree 👌 Thank you for your opinion!

[@ThatAvgeekKid]

I was just trying to make an upgrade to the terminal but when I placed a gate, the entire taxiway disappeared. What did I do wrong?

[@Benney]

It's hard to tell without seeing the project, did you check if you have any red errors in the scenery editor?

[@FLXBrasil]

Hey Benney, I re-draw all of my taxiways. When selecting LIGHTED EDGE, the blue lights appears randomlly far from the edge. Several meters from it. My taxiway is about 23m, and lights are being placed like the taxiway was 40m wide, more or less. Any tips?

[@Benney]

I've not had much luck with taxiway lighting myself either. You can try using light strips instead and just place them along your taxiways.

[@FLXBrasil]

@@Benney thnx for answering. You mean, place one by one making a strip?

[@Burris7744]

I just spent basically an entire day on taxi way lights they are extremely frustrating but I understand it now! In order to get taxi way lights to work you have to do a few specific steps. 1. you have to go into objects then scroll down to light row. once selected you have keep using add button every light row(if you use click to add it will not work!) next you have to work out how far apart your taxi lights will be spaced, unfortunately there is no option to automatically space them so it takes forever to place if you place them to far apart then the game automatically draws in its own lights between yours which is extremely frustrating! once you have them placed there is no option to position them across from each other so thats a whole other ball game its ridiculous how tedious this sdk is right now there are workarounds but they are extremely lengthy!

[@jnln]

is there a way to hide the taxiway way line when it spawns when creating ramps?

[@Benney]

Make sure "Center line" is unchecked on the taxiway line properties panel.

[@paulr4074]

How do you tell the sim what direction the planes should face at the gate?

[@Benney]

You can set rotation in the properties panel, or connecting it up to a taxiway path also dictates what way the planes face. Turn on taxiway lines to see the line in the parking space.

[@tomazkoban9531]

Excellent. But my camera keeps rotating as I move my mouse

[@kevinhope89]

I just have one question. When I am selecting the taxi point, then clicking one click placing, it deselects the taxi point. Is this a new update to the SDK? Edit: The menu was over the runway, so it was just selecting the runway instead.

[@Benney]

Good to know you found what was causing the problem!

[@sureshot234]

When control clicking two points, you might select the runway as well by accident. Simply control click on the runway again to deselect it and then you'll be able to place a path between the still selected two points. Posting this in case anyone is still wondering.

[@Burris7744]

@BennyBoy444 do you know how to change atc to say "apron" instead of "ALPHA PAPA ROMEO OSCAR NOVEMBER"?

[@Benney]

Not sure I've come across ATC needing to say "apron" to me before, regardless this sounds like a simulator bug. Search on the forums of anyone else has had similar issues and report it if not. I had something similar where ATC would speak 1 as "oh-en-ee", quite amusing and annoying.

[@Burris7744]

@@Benney ya use to use edit voicepack, however I dont think it works for MSFS!

[@chrisgard4076]

very good vid but you move tooo fast for my tiny brain to keep up, could you do a simple bush airstrip with say 2 parking spots (for cold and dark starts an maybe a helipad as well pleeeeze

[@Nick-Taylor]

Is this the same with a fuel truck? Place Simobject fuel truck and link to a gate?

[@Benney]

No, I haven't managed to get fuel trucks working myself yet. It's something to do with the living world config. There is a sample project LivingWorld_Config in the SDK which contains the required XML files. I'll be having a look into it at some point and once I understand I can make a tutorial on it.

[@Nick-Taylor]

@@Benney I got them working. There is a parking spot called vehicle. And just link it to the taxiways or roads with the create path.

[@Benney]

@@Nick-Taylor Ah nice, didn't know it was that simple.

[@Burris7744]

@@Benney now if there was a fix for vehicles on the taxiways....

[@vinaysaran]

The ai aircrafts crawls upto the start points...Wait and vanish ...Don't take of...Can you please help

[@Benney]

Main thing I can think of are making sure you have a taxi path with type runway connecting the taxiway entrances to your runway.

[@vinaysaran]

@@Benney these entries are also correct...The ai ignores the hold short node and takes the aircraft to the runway and stays there and vanish ... I'm not able to find out... On the loading page there's a wrench mark next to the Star airport mark. ..😢

[@pavansampath7201]

help me! after inserting taxi points its not drawing them !!

[@MrMinotaur12]

I have the same problem! Just trying out SDK today..

[@pavansampath7201]

@@MrMinotaur12 :((

[@darengardner6219]

Taxiway lights

[@dimez6903]

when people post payware apron taxilines im paying for people to do this when i could do this myself thank you im not gonna pay for that

[@mobil_oyuncusu667]

With which programs can we make the Msfs 2020 airport Add-on?

[@manlatycon]

Excellent information - but please, slow down! You move from menu to menu like a whirling Dervish - newbies to this scenery design need to be able to see the options you are selecting in slower time rather than the rapid-fire click-click that comes with your experience of using the system.

[@Benney]

I try to pace myself but can't please everybody, consider watching it at 0.5x speed if it's too fast for you!