Add taxiway lights in FSX: set edge and centreline lighting, compile the airport BGL, install it, and avoid common scenery conflicts.
To add taxiway lights in FSX or FSX: Steam Edition, edit the airport’s taxiway paths in an airport-design tool such as Airport Design Editor, enable edge and/or centreline lighting on each link, compile the airport to a BGL, install it as active scenery, then check it at night.
What do I need to edit taxiway lighting?
You need an FSX-compatible airport editor and a working FSX BGL compiler. Airport Design Editor is commonly used because it can load an existing airport, expose each taxiway link’s lighting properties and compile the finished airport definition.
Our Airport Design Editor setup and airport-editing guide covers opening stock airports, validating layouts and compiling scenery. Work from the original project file when editing an add-on airport; importing its compiled BGL may not recover every feature perfectly.
How do I add taxiway edge or centreline lights?
- Open the correct airport. Load the stock airport by ICAO code, or open the source project supplied with your add-on. Save it as a new project rather than altering any default FSX files.
- Select the taxiway path links. Native taxiway lights belong to the links connecting taxiway nodes. Merely drawing an apron polygon or a painted taxiway surface will not create them.
- Open each link’s properties. Enable left and right edge lights, centreline lights, or both as required. Property wording may vary slightly between editor releases. Do not confuse painted edge-line markings with actual edge lighting.
- Inspect the complete route. Apply the setting to every required segment and look for gaps, overlapping links or sections defined with the wrong path type. One unedited link produces an obvious dark break at night.
- Validate and compile. Correct reported taxiway-network errors, then compile the project to an FSX-format
.bglfile. If compilation is unavailable, configure the editor with a compatible FSX compiler first. - Install the BGL safely. Put it in the
Scenerysubfolder of a dedicated add-on scenery folder, activate that folder through the FSX Scenery Library and place it above any airport it is intended to replace. - Test after dark. Restart or reload the scenery database, set the flight to night or late dusk and inspect the entire taxi route from ground level.
Which type of taxiway lighting should I use?
| Lighting | Best use | FSX method |
|---|---|---|
| Blue edge lights | Defining taxiway edges, especially where no centreline lights are fitted | Enable lighting on the left and right edges of the taxiway links |
| Green centreline lights | Major taxi routes and low-visibility guidance | Enable centreline lighting on the required links |
| Special light patterns | Stop bars, detailed lead-off patterns or bespoke apron lighting | Use carefully placed scenery objects or effects when native path lighting cannot reproduce the design |
Choose native taxiway-path lighting wherever possible. It follows the network cleanly and is easier to maintain. Custom effects give more control, but every light must be positioned manually and excessive effect-based lighting can hurt performance.
Why do my new taxiway lights not appear?
Most missing lights are caused by scenery priority or duplicate airport BGLs rather than the light settings themselves. A mistake we see constantly is leaving an older AFCAD active above the newly compiled airport.
- Confirm that the new scenery folder is enabled and has higher priority than the competing airport.
- Search active scenery folders for duplicate airport or AFCAD BGLs, then disable only the confirmed duplicate rather than deleting files blindly.
- Verify that lighting was applied to taxiway links, not just apron polygons or painted lines.
- Check that the BGL compiled successfully and was placed inside an active
Sceneryfolder. - Test at full night. Native airport lights can be difficult or impossible to judge in daylight.
- Inspect the airport elevation if the lights appear buried, floating or visible only from certain angles.
If an airport already contains lights but they have vanished, follow our focused checks for missing FSX taxiway lights and scenery conflicts. Aircraft landing or taxi-light switches do not control airport lighting.
Can I install a separate light-only BGL?
A separate BGL is suitable for manually placed light objects or effects, but it is risky for native taxiway-path lighting. Native edge and centreline settings are part of the airport facility definition, so a second airport BGL can override or conflict with the existing AFCAD instead of simply adding lights to it.
The safest method is to edit and compile the complete airport project, preserving its runways, parking, taxiways, approaches and signs. Keep the previous BGL outside active scenery as a backup, and remove or rename only the superseded version after confirming that the edited airport works.