X-PLANENAVIGATION DATA FOR FIXES (USER_FIX.DAT & EARTH_FIX.DAT) FILE SPECIFICATIONVERSION 1200
REVISION HISTORY
12 July 2009
10 Aug 201603 Jan 201729 Nov 2018
13 Jul 2021

Spec converted to this new format to support new web site (http://data.x-plane.com).
Spec updated for X-Plane 11
Added optional field for Waypoint Type
Waypoint Type is now mandatory since X-Plane 11.30
Separate column for waypoint name added to support more VFR waypoints

APPLICABILITY
This specification (XP FIX1200) is supported in X-Plane 12.00b1 and later. It is identified in the data files as “1200 Version” on the second row of the file.
The prior specification for fix data was XP FIX1001, which was compatible with X-Plane 11.26-11.99. Changes in the spec for XP FIX1101 were:•

New column for waypoint name, especially for VFR waypoints, may contain spaces

OVERVIEW & SCOPE
This specification defines all fixes (also known as waypoints or intersections) in X-Plane. This includes both enroute waypoints (EA-records in ARINC424 data)
and terminal waypoints (PC-records in ARINC424 data). The effect of this data is to:••

Allow these fixes to be selected in X-Plane’s GPS and FMC systems.
Display the fixes on X-Plane’s charts.

X-Plane Fix Data (earth_fix.dat & fix.dat) File Specification

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1200 Version, 1-Sep-21

BASIC CONCEPTS••••••••

Latitudes and longitudes are described in a decimal notation (e.g. 20.12345678).
o A latitude of 50 degrees 30 minutes south would be defined as -50.50000000
North latitudes and east longitudes are positive. South latitudes and west longitudes are negative.
Terminal waypoints must specify the airport whose terminal area they belong toEnroute waypoints must specify the ICAO region code as per ICAO document No. 7910
The non-existing country code “ZZ” is used for user-defined waypoints that are not published in the AIP of any country.
User-defined waypoints with country code “ZZ” must have a globally unique identifier
User-defined waypoints with country code “ZZ” must not appear in earth_fix.dat, but only in user_fix.dat
User-defined waypoints can have empty waypoint type, published waypoints must set the waypoint type field

FILE CHARACTERISTICS
The earth_fix.dat files are plain text files:••Fields in the data can be separated by one or more white space (space, tab) characters.
By default, the files are generated so that columns of data are consistently aligned, but this is not required.

FILE STRUCTURE
In common with most other X-Plane data file specification, header rows of data define the origin (“I” = Intel byte order or “A” = Motorola byte order) of aparticular copy of a file, and define the file specification version. The file specification must include the four-digit AIRAC cycle date (e.g. 1602 for the AIRAC
cycle effective 4-Feb-16, refer to https://www.nm.eurocontrol.int/RAD/common/airac_dates.html for cycle dates), an 8-digit build date and the reference tothis document. A copyright message may be added, while the total length of this line is not to exceed 1024 characters:
I
1101 Version - data cycle 1602, build 20160204, metadata FixXP1100. Copyright © 2016, Robin A. Peel (robin@xsquawkbox.net)...

Subsequent rows of data define each waypoint. Sequence is not important, but by default this file is sorted alphabetically by fix name.
The file is terminated by a ‘99’:
99

X-Plane Fix Data (earth_fix.dat & fix.dat) File Specification

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1200 Version, 1-Sep-21

ROW CODES
Unlike other data files, no ‘row codes’ are used for fix data, since the file contains just one type of data.

EXAMPLE DATA
Here is example data for a fixes:
46.646819444 -123.722388889
37.770908333 -122.082811111
43.740277778 -89.224722222

AAYRR KSEA K1 4530263 AAYRRAAAME ENRT K2 4530263 AAAMEVPPLK ENRT K5 2105430 PUCKAWAY LAKE

DEFINITION OF DATA FIELDS
Each column in each row is defined below, using the example data from shown above. Note that:Row

Meaning
Example value

CommentExplanation

Valid values[none]Fix

Fix or IFR intersection or VFR waypoint

No row codes are used, since all data refers to fixes

46.64641944

Latitude of fix in decimal degrees

Eight decimal places supported-123.72238889
AAYRR
KSEA

Longitude of fix in decimal degrees
ID of fix
ID of airport terminal area or “ENRT” for enroute fixes

Eight decimal places supported
Usually five characters. Unique within an ICAO region.
Must be either airport identifier or “ENRT”

K1

ICAO region code of enroute fix or terminal area airport

4530263

Waypoint type as defined by the 3 columns of ARINC 424.18 field definition 5.42

AAYRR

Printed or spoken name of the waypoint, may contain spaces

Must be region code according to ICAO document No. 7910
For terminal waypoints, the region code of the airport is used
32bit representation of the 3-byte field defined by ARINC
424.18 field type definition 5.42, with the 4th byte set to 0 in
Little Endian byte order. This field can be empty ONLY for user
waypoints in user_fix.dat
For most IFR waypoints, this is identical with the ID.

FURTHER INFORMATION
Resources are available for airport and navaid designers at the X-Plane Scenery Gateway at http://gateway.x-plane.com/
X-Plane Fix Data (earth_fix.dat & fix.dat) File Specification

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1200 Version, 1-Sep-21