The Lockheed Martin Prepar3D Software Development Kit (SDK) fosters an open and thriving ecosystem of developers. The SDK supports Prepar3D’s philosophy of an open development architecture and encourages third parties to bring new innovations and improved add-ons and training content to the Prepar3D platform. The SDK can be used to develop new models and content, such as aircraft, instruments, radars, ground vehicles, boats, buildings and other structures. It can be used to create new visuals, such as scenery, terrain, and special effects. Prepar3D is fundamentally data driven; there is no limit to the amount of new data, models, or scenarios that can be added or modified to enhance training objectives.
The Prepar3D ® v6 SDK is available as a free download to anyone looking to get into developing add-ons or content for Prepar3D v6.
The Prepar3D v6 SDK 6.1 is the current version and should be used to develop new content for Prepar3D v6. The SimConnect.lib and LockheedMartin.Prepar3D.SimConnect.dll provided in the SDK cannot be used to connect to FSX, ESP or any previous release of Prepar3D.
To enable the maximum possible level of backwards compatibility, the SimConnect server in Prepar3D v6 is compatible with 32-bit SimConnect executables of previous versions of Prepar3D, FSX (SP2 and above), and ESP. To develop a SimConnect add-on that works with FSX, ESP, and all versions of Prepar3D you would use the SimConnect SDK that was included with FSX. The Prepar3D v5 application is 64-bit and therefore is not backwards compatible with 32-bit DLLs from Prepar3D v3 or older, FSX, and ESP.
The SDK documentation is also accessible via the Learning Center windows help file in any installed version of Prepar3D. This windows help file can be found in the help menu of your Prepar3D or inside your Prepar3D installation directory.