Improve an airport map

Video: map an airport

Mapping stop bars - from launching the simulator to submitting the map.

XPGuard detects stop bars automatically at every airport. Start with the detected map. Correct it where needed:

• Nudge a bar that sits off the hold line.
• Aim one that faces the wrong way.
• Add one that is missing.
• Remove one that isn’t really there.

A few things to know before you start:

• Submit an empty map to declare that an airport has no stop bars. That clears out false detections.
• Every submission is checked by a reviewer - an admin or a country moderator. Once approved, it becomes the published map for everyone.
• You map stop bars, plus optionally lead-on lines and REL rows. THL needs no contribution. It is worked out from the runway geometry.

Submitting never changes the live map

A submit creates a separate proposal. Nothing in any sim changes until a reviewer approves it.

Choose the map for your scenery

XPGuard keeps a separate map per scenery. An add-on paints its markings in slightly different places than the built-in airport. A map made for one will not line up on the other.

Map	What it is	How to edit it
Base map	The airport’s default map, authored in the web editor on X-Plane’s official airport layout data (the Gateway). Controllers use it; X-Plane’s built-in scenery gets it; every unmapped scenery falls back to it.	The dashboard (Option B), or in-sim in X-Plane.
MSFS · Stock	MSFS’s built-in airport is not the Base map - its markings sit differently, so it gets its own variant map.	In-sim, from MSFS 2020 or 2024. Both share the built-in ground layout, so one map serves both.
Add-on · 3rd-party	A payware or freeware airport you installed - an Aerosoft or iniBuilds scenery, for example. Its markings sit differently, so it gets its own map, tied to that exact scenery. Only pilots on the same add-on receive it.	Only from inside the sim (Option A), where XPGuard can see what is loaded.

Rule of thumb

• Built-in airport - edit the Base map from the dashboard. (In X-Plane, in-sim works too. In MSFS you can map the stock airport as MSFS · Stock.)
• Add-on airport - always use in-sim contribution mode. It is the only way XPGuard can attach your map to the right scenery.

Editing the Base map is never wasted

Until an add-on has its own map, everyone flying it falls back to the Base map. It is the baseline every scenery starts from. A cleaner Base map helps add-on flyers too, right up until somebody maps that add-on.

On the radar, controllers always use the Base map. One set of bars per airport, switched by the bar’s name, with that state shared across every scenery. The controller switches C1 once. Each pilot sees C1 at the position mapped for their own scenery. The controller does not need to choose a map per pilot.

Taxi network (FTG) editor

The Follow the Greens taxi-network editor is open to moderators with an FTG access grant. The controller workflow it feeds is on the EuroScope page. To apply for FTG access, reach out on Discord.