Runways

Press R to open the Runway tool, then pick a template card. Now click and dragon the map from one runway end to the other. While you drag, a live tag follows the cursor showing the current length and cost, so you always know what you're about to lay down.

Two modifiers change how the drag behaves: hold Ctrl to lock the heading to neat increments, or hold Shift to place completely freehand with no snapping. In a hurry? A plain click - no drag at all - places the template at its default length.

Select a placed runway and its property card gives you sliders for Heading, Length, and Width, plus a surface swatch picker to change what it's made of. Nothing is fixed at placement time - a dirt strip can grow into a paved regional runway whenever your area level and materials allow it.

Runway designators - the painted numbers like 09/27 - derive automatically from the heading. You never type them by hand: swing the heading slider and the numbers follow. On painted runways the card notes it plainly: will be marked 09/27 (auto-set from heading).

Prefer a natural look on a paved surface? Tick Clean surface (no markings). Grass, dirt, and gravel runways are always clean - the checkbox is disabled for them, with the note Grass, dirt & gravel always render as a natural strip - no centerline or numbers.

The buildable circle

All four corners of a runway are clamped inside the buildable circle. If a drag would poke outside, the runway shrinks to fit - length gives way first, then width - and the status note reads kept inside the buildable area.

Per level

Each runway is flattened to its own sampled elevation, so a strip on a hillside sits level on the ground it actually occupies. The one thing to watch: two runways at very different elevations trigger the two-airport split warning, because MSFS can only flatten one airport to one height. What that means for your build (and your wallet) is covered in Saving, the cart & builds.