The 3D model is the visible aircraft that displayed on the screen. The 3D model on the computer is a bunch of numbers that define several hundred-thousand points and their connections. Three connected points make one triangle (a tiny bit of surface) and several triangles connected to each other can approximate any shape, e.g. the shape of a certain aircraft part. This collection of triangles is called a mesh and can be imagined as a dense net that spans over the entire surface. Onto the mesh an image (texture) is overlaid to define the coloring of the surface. All meshes of the individual parts make up the '3D model' of the aircraft.

Of course not each individual point (vertex) is placed by hand. There are software programs that let the user modify primitive geometry (cube, cylinder, sphere,…) into any shape desired. These modelling tools also do a great job of flattening/stretching the 3D surface of triangles into a flat surface so that it becomes easy to assign parts of an image (texture) to a part of the model (uv-mapping).

In the SDK we have included an entire aircraft project, the Robin DR-400, including its 3D model and textures. By following the few steps of the aircraft tutorial the necessary development programs will be installed and at the end of the tutorial the DR-400 will be installed as an additional aircraft in the simulator.

Please note that the 3D model of the Robin DR-400 provided is copyrighted and may not be used for any other purpose then demonstrating how to create aircraft for the Aerofly FS 2.

Currently (30th January 2017) the Aerofly FS 2 Software Development Kit (SDK) supports 3D Studio Max 2010 or higher, Maxon Cinema 4D version 17 and AutoCAD (AC3D) 3D version 8.

After installing the SDK we will now go through the steps of introducing a custom made 3D model into the Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator.