Found a couple of postings from Lee Swordy elsewhere while surfing and read them. Here's the synopsis:
Lee has said that the new version of AFCAD will be freeware and it will be out sometime in October. It is taking so long because it is pretty much a complete re-do.
He said that the new version is COMPLETELY different because of the new FS9 scenery and AI programming. The new AFCAD will not only deal with the invisible taxiways, and the gates and all..... but will be a VISUAL scenery designer as well. The two parts of the simulator are now handled as a single entity by M$. He said that the new simulator handles this stuff completely differently than in the past.... and what used to be an invisible AI taxiway.....now generates a piece of visual taxiway. While he didn't say it directly.... he alluded to the fact that it seems like the new version will not NEED FSUIPC .....because you won;t have to jump back and forth to see where a gate is.... since it generated the visual scenery too.
Supposedly it will generate scenery files like any other bgl file in the sim... no more txt files to translate. And they will get placed in your add-on scenery folder like any other add on scenery. It apparently will also allow you to OPEN existing airport bgl files and directly edit them!!!!!!
Unfortunatley he also said that the old AFCAD files would be a total BEAR to translate to FS9.... and he wasn't looking at doing that. He said it would be easier to re-do all the airports from scratch than to try to do some sort of "update".
SO... that is what I can remember.
Gotta' say "THANKS" again to Lee for doing this kind of incredible freeware work so we can all enjoy the hobby more. A very selfless act.
best,
...................john
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