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Before starting a contribution, make sure your scenery package, simulator, and BARS Pilot Client are ready. You’ll create and edit the draft in your browser, then test the lighting in your simulator.
Prerequisites:Before you begin, you must have the following:
  1. The exact scenery package you want to support.
  2. MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024, or X-Plane installed with that scenery.
  3. The BARS Pilot Client installed for the in-simulator test.
Use the same scenery package when you create, edit, and test the draft. If you reconnect a different package, the editor warns that the scenery no longer matches the draft source.

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Start from the Dashboard

Open the Contribution Dashboard. It has two views:
  • All Contributions lists approved airport and scenery combinations. You can search by airport, scenery, or simulator and download an approved XML file.
  • Your Contributions shows your approved, pending, and rejected submissions. It also shows a status summary.
The leaderboard lists the community’s top contributors.
BARS Contribution Dashboard with the All Contributions and Your Contributions tabs, search field, leaderboard, and Contribute New Airport button
1

Select Contribute New Airport

Click Contribute New Airport on the dashboard. The button is available after you sign in.
2

Enter the airport ICAO

Enter the airport’s four-character ICAO code.
3

Select Review airport

BARS loads the airport layout and contribution policy.
Start a contribution page with the Airport ICAO field, Review airport button, and contribution progress tracker

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Legacy MSFS Workflow

You may need to use the legacy workflow when the experimental MSFS browser editor is unavailable for your selected scenery package or cannot render it correctly. This lets you build the contribution with the simulator’s developer tools and upload the resulting XML at the test step.
1

Enable Developer Mode

Start MSFS and enable Developer Mode:
Open Options > General Options > Developers, then turn Developer Mode on.
Start a flight at the airport you are mapping before opening the Scenery Editor.
2

Create a scenery project

Open the Project Editor:
Select Tools > Project Editor, then Project > New Project.
Name the project BARS Maps and choose where to save it. MSFS 2024 may display the name as BARS-Maps because it replaces spaces with hyphens.In the package wizard:
  1. Choose Package, then Custom.
  2. Use bars-maps as the package name and BARS Maps as its display name.
  3. Set Content-Type to SCENERY.
  4. Continue to the asset group screen.
3

Set up the asset group

Name the asset group using the airport and scenery:
For example, use EGLL-iniBuilds for the iniBuilds scenery at Heathrow.
Create a separate asset group for every airport and scenery package you map.
Set Asset Type to BGL, create the group, then select Load In Editor. Save the project before placing polygons.
4

Create the BARS object polygons

For each object on the BARS airport review map:
  1. Copy its BARS ID.
  2. In the Scenery Editor’s Objects panel, select Polygon, then Add.
  3. Hold Control and left-click to place each point.
  4. Press Enter to finish the polygon.
  5. In Properties, set Display Name to the exact BARS ID, such as BARS_0GHSI.
Shape the polygon along the stop bar, lead-on lights, or other object it represents. Repeat this for every object you want to include.
5

Add removal polygons

Draw polygons around default MSFS lights that BARS will replace. Set the display name of each removal polygon to remove.Only cover the lights that need to disappear. Do not place removal polygons over runway or scenery lights that should remain visible.
6

Save and test the XML

Select Save Scenery and save the XML inside the BGL asset group’s Asset Directory, usually its scenery folder under PackageSources. You can use Control + S for later saves.Return to the airport review page, select Skip to test, and upload the saved scenery XML.Check the browser preview before opening the contribution in the BARS Pilot Client. If an object is missing, confirm that its polygon uses the exact BARS ID. If a removal is missing, confirm that its polygon is named remove.

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Next Steps

Once you have entered the airport ICAO, review its lighting layout before creating a draft.

Mapping

Check the division layout and BARS IDs before creating a draft.