Pasting a Route String
Copy an ATC route string or lat/lon waypoints from ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, SkyDemon, FltPlan, or a printed flight plan and paste them straight into PlaneWX. Origin, destination, and intermediate waypoints populate automatically.
Watch: Pasting a Route String
Video walkthrough: from copying a route in ForeFlight to a fully resolved waypoint list
How to Paste a Route
- 1
Open the New Trip dialog
Click + New Trip on your dashboard. You don't need to fill in the Origin or Destination fields first.
- 2
Enter your departure and arrival airports
Type at least 3 characters into either the Origin or Destination field, and the waypoint input box will appear. Alternatively, skip ahead to step 3 and paste a full route string with the airports included.
- 3
Paste your route string into the waypoint field
Click inside the Waypoints input and paste (⌘V / Ctrl+V). PlaneWX processes the string automatically.
- 4
Review the resolved waypoints
Each waypoint appears as a chip below the input. Airways are stripped automatically. Unresolved identifiers are skipped. Use the search box to add them manually if needed.
What the Route String Looks Like
PlaneWX accepts the standard ATC/FMS route string format: the same format used in ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, and printed flight plans.
Example: KMKC to MMSD via Mexico
KMKC ZORLA WALTO SCABI TAYOL FST J42 AMUKI J42 ELQ J141 CAFIS UJ10 CUL UJ32 SJD MMSD
Kept as waypoints
ZORLA WALTO SCABI TAYOL FST AMUKI ELQ CAFIS CUL SJD
Stripped (airways)
J42 J141 UJ10 UJ32
Auto-filled as airports
KMKC to Origin
MMSD to Destination
What counts as a waypoint vs. an airway?
How Origin and Destination Are Filled
When you paste a string that starts and ends with airport identifiers, PlaneWX fills them automatically, including overwriting a pre-filled home airport if needed.
Origin auto-fill rules
- If the first token is a 4-character ICAO and the Origin field is empty, it fills automatically.
- If your home airport is pre-filled but the pasted route starts with a different 4-character ICAO, PlaneWX overwrites your home airport with the route's departure.
- If the pasted string starts with a navaid or fix (not an airport), the Origin field is left unchanged.
Destination auto-fill rules
- If the last token is a 4-character ICAO, PlaneWX fills it as the Destination automatically.
- A pre-filled Destination is overwritten if the last token is a different 4-character ICAO.
Home airport and route paste: If your home airport is set to KABQ and you paste a route that starts with KMKC, PlaneWX assumes you mean to depart from KMKC and overwrites the pre-filled home airport. You can always change Origin and Destination after pasting.
International Routes
Route pasting works for international flights, including routes across Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. PlaneWX resolves international VOR/NDB identifiers (2 to 4 characters) using the AIRAC navaid database.
What resolves internationally
- • ICAO 4-letter airports (MMSD, CYYZ)
- • Mexican VORs (SJD, CUL, MTY)
- • Canadian navaids (YVR, YYZ)
- • Caribbean fixes and VORs
- • 5-letter GPS fixes on international airways
When a navaid doesn't resolve
Some 2 to 3 letter identifiers are shared between a US navaid and an international one. If PlaneWX resolves the wrong one, remove the chip and search for the correct identifier by name. The search will show coordinates so you can confirm the right fix.
International airways are stripped automatically
Mexican airspace uses airways like UJ10 and UJ32. PlaneWX strips these just like US jet and victor airways: only the named fixes along the airway are kept.
Radial Fixes (Navaid/Radial/Distance)
Some airfields and reporting points are not in any airport database, but are defined relative to a nearby navaid. PlaneWX accepts the standard NAVAID/RADIAL/DISTANCE format to specify these points directly.
Format
NAVAID / RADIAL / DISTANCE
NAVAID
2 to 5 letter VOR, VORTAC, or NDB identifier
LTO
RADIAL
Outbound radial in degrees (1 to 3 digits)
276
DISTANCE
Distance in nautical miles (1 to 3 digits)
64
Full example: LTO/276/64: 64 NM on the 276° radial from the LTO VOR (San Juanico / Scorpion Bay area)
How to use it
- Type LTO/276/64 directly into the waypoint field and press Enter or Tab
- Paste a full route string that contains a radial token. It is preserved automatically
- The resolved point appears as a violet chip, and weather is sampled along that actual path
Things to know
- The navaid must be in the database. US and most international VORs are supported; very remote or decommissioned navaids may not resolve.
- VOR radials are magnetic, but PlaneWX treats them as true bearing, consistent with how PIREP locations are computed. Small accuracy difference (a few NM).
Lat/Lon Coordinate Waypoints
Some route sheets (Canadian VFR plans, offshore and oceanic routes, and app exports) define custom points as latitude/longitude instead of named fixes. Paste a coordinate from ForeFlight, Garmin, SkyDemon, FltPlan, or a printed plan into the Waypoints field. PlaneWX turns it into a waypoint chip automatically.
Supported paste formats (one real example each)
How it works
- Each recognized coordinate becomes one waypoint chip (often shown compact, like 4944N/12303W).
- Straight, curly, and prime quote marks are all accepted (' / ’ / ′ for minutes, " / ” / ″ for seconds).
- Origin or destination snap: a lat/lon used as origin or destination within about 10 NM of an airport snaps to that airport. Farther away, it stays as a waypoint chip (not an airport fill).
- Not the same as radial fixes: two slashes mean PBD (LTO/276/64). That format is covered in Radial Fixes above. A single slash between lat and lon is a coordinate, not a radial.
A coordinate pair is skipped as off-route if it lands far from your departure/destination. That usually means the hemisphere letter (N/S/E/W) was missing or mistyped on the source sheet. Double-check the coordinate and add it manually if it is correct.
SkyDemon Share and .flightplan Files
PlaneWX imports SkyDemon routes when the file is DivelementsFlightPlanner XML (.flightplan). Share from iOS or paste on the web; Origin, Destination, Alt, Rules, and intermediate waypoints fill in for you.
Watch: sharing a .flightplan from SkyDemon into PlaneWX. Open in Loom
How to share from SkyDemon
- Open your route in SkyDemon, use Share / Export, and choose the .flightplan file.
- iPhone or iPad: share that file to PlaneWX. PlaneWX opens Watch a New Trip with the route already applied.
- Web: paste the XML into the Waypoints field on New Trip or Watch a New Trip (or open the import link from the share extension).
What PlaneWX reads
- DivelementsFlightPlanner XML: start coordinate plus each RhumbLineRoute point along the path.
- Origin and Destination: snapped to the nearest airport within 10 NM. Farther away, the point stays as a waypoint chip (not an airport fill).
- Intermediate points: become waypoint chips (same path as pasting SkyDemon coordinates). They are not treated as separate trip stops.
- Altitude: PrimaryRoute Level (for example Level="13500") prefills the Alt field on New Trip / paste.
- Rules: Rules="Vfr" or Rules="Ifr" on PrimaryRoute sets the form Rules to VFR or IFR.
- If iOS also attaches a GPX with skd:level, PlaneWX can join that cruise altitude when the Divelements file has no numeric Level.
Short Divelements XML sample
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<DivelementsFlightPlanner>
<PrimaryRoute Start="N322635.05 W0974916.95" StartType="Aerodrome"
Level="13500" Rules="Vfr" ...>
<RhumbLineRoute To="N333209.20 W0974916.60" ToType="RadioAid" ... />
...
<RhumbLineRoute To="N412659.80 W0963116.30" ToType="Aerodrome" ... />
</PrimaryRoute>
</DivelementsFlightPlanner>That sample snaps to KGDJ to KFET, prefills Alt 13500 and Rules VFR, and keeps intermediate points as waypoint chips. Plain English text is still refused and will not become a fake trip. You can also paste SkyDemon coordinates directly (see Lat/Lon Coordinate Waypoints above).
Tips & Troubleshooting
The waypoint box isn't showing
The waypoint input appears once either the Origin or Destination field has at least 3 characters. Type your departure or arrival airport first, then the waypoint box will appear and you can paste your full route.
A waypoint shows as unresolved
Not every identifier in a route string maps to a point PlaneWX can resolve. Some are procedure names, airline-specific codes, or database-only fixes. Unresolved identifiers are simply skipped. For the briefing to be accurate, the waypoints that matter most are the ones farthest from the direct path: corner waypoints, significant turning points, and mountain range crossings.
Waypoints reset when I reopen the dialog
The New Trip dialog clears all fields, including waypoints, each time you open it. This is by design to avoid accidentally carrying forward a previous route. Paste your route string after opening the dialog each time.
A fix shows "full name not supported, use ID"
PlaneWX matches fixes by their 2 to 5 character identifier, not their spelled-out name. If your route sheet lists a full name (e.g. ATKINSON instead of its identifier), look up the fix's ID and add it manually in the search box.
Sharing from iOS (ForeFlight)
On iPhone or iPad, share a ForeFlight PDF or route text to PlaneWX. PlaneWX opens Watch a New Trip with origin and destination filled when both airports are recognized. Plain English text is not treated as a route. If PlaneWX cannot find a real origin and destination, you will see an error instead of a fake trip.
Adding waypoints manually
You can mix pasting and manual entry. After pasting, type a fix identifier into the waypoint search box to add individual points. Chips can be reordered by dragging and removed by clicking the × on each chip.
Do waypoints affect the briefing?
Yes, significantly. Waypoints define the corridor that PlaneWX uses to filter weather products (G-AIRMETs, SIGMETs, PIREPs, TFRs). A direct-line route between two airports uses a straight corridor; adding waypoints ensures weather is fetched along your actual flight path. For routes that deviate significantly from direct (crossing mountain ranges, avoiding restricted airspace, or routing via Mexico), waypoints make a real difference to what weather is included in your briefing.
What you can paste: ATC route strings and lat/lon waypoints from ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, SkyDemon (coordinates or DivelementsFlightPlanner .flightplan XML), FltPlan, SkyVector, and printed flight plans. If a route string does not paste cleanly, try removing SID/STAR procedure names (e.g. SNDRP6). Those are procedure identifiers, not waypoints, and should be omitted.