Topic: What You Can Do With This Program

Airport Design Editor is a 2D CAD style program that allows you to work with most elements of an FSX airport and surrounding scenery. This includes:

Runways You can add, delete, move or modify runways. This includes all runway markings, lighting, approach lights, VASI and similar visual landing aids. Although you cannot create your own runway surface textures, you can choose from a range of stock surface types from concrete to water.
Different Runways for Takeoff and Landing At airports that have parallel runways, you can change which runways ATC assigns to user and AI aircraft for takeoffs and landings. Note that you cannot make ATC use crossing runways or runways at different angles simultaneously.
Cross Wind Runways ADE provides partial automation of the cross wind runway technique pioneered by Jim Vile
Taxiways You can add, delete, move or modify taxiways. This includes taxiway markings, lighting, surface type and designations (e.g. taxiway "B2"). In addition to the visual appearance and location of taxiways, the routing of taxiways also controls how ATC routes user and AI aircraft around the airport.
Taxi Signs You can add, modify and delete taxi signs.
Aprons You can add, delete, move or modify apron surfaces and apron edge lights . Apron surfaces can be used anywhere extra pieces of pavement are required around airports, not just at terminal buildings. By using Helper Shapes you can create oval, circular or rectangular aprons with a single mouse click
Parking You can add parking spots (gate and ramp parking) and modify or delete existing spots at airports for your own use or to increase the AI levels at an airport. Parking can be added at airports that do not currently have it. Any number of parking spots can be added. Parking is required in order for AI to operate at an airport so adding parking will also allow you to program AI to use airports that do not currently have it.
Jetways You can add, modify and delete FSX Jet ways. ADE will only allow a single jetway to be assigned to any parking spot. This reduces the risk of errors and unexpected behavior at the airport
Airline Gate Assignments Microsoft added to FS2004 the capability to assign specific airlines to specific gates and this has been extended in FSX. You can also designate classes of aircraft to use certain classes of parking, such as GA aircraft to ramp parking, cargo aircraft to cargo parking and military aircraft to military parking.
ATC and Communications You can add, delete, and modify communications frequencies. Adding a tower and/or ground control frequency is all that is needed to add ATC to any airport that does not already have it, you do not need an actual control tower scenery object to have ATC operation. Note that FS2002 required ATC to be present at an airport in order for AI to operate there but FS2004 and FSX no longer have that restriction, AI can now operate even at uncontrolled airports.
Navaids In this version you can see stock navaids but cannot modify them. ADE will display navaids associated with the airport and also navaids within a 25nm radius of the airport (NOTE this is partially implemented in the current version – ADE may not find all navaids if the airport is close to a scenery folder boundary). You can however add some local user navaids including NDBs, Marker Beacons and ILS.
Helipads You can add new helipads, delete or modify existing helipads.
Start Locations Every airport comes with default start locations for your aircraft at the end of each runway that FSX uses in any stock airport . These can be changed to be at different locations, such as at the taxiway entrance to a runway. You may also add and modify Starts.
Control Tower The location for the control tower view of your aircraft (selected by pressing the ‘S’ key twice in FS) can be changed. This can be placed at the actual control tower location, if there is a tower, or at any other location or elevation. You can add a visual object for the control tower by using a suitable library object from ADE's collection of objects.
Fences FSX can display two fence types. Boundary Fences and Blast Fences. You can add, modify and delete both types with ADE.
Library Objects, Windsocks, and Fuel Triggers ADE has the ability to add these scenery elements to your airport. It also searches FSX and will load into the display any of these elements that it finds located on or next to the airport.
Generic Buildings ADE will load and display generic buildings that are located at the stock airport. ADE provides a user generic building database so that you can save generic buildings that you like and use them at other airports.
Terrain Elements Three element types are handled. Airport background polygons, exclusion polygons and land class polygons