Hi guys,This may sound stupid, but I don't really understand the basics of AFCADs within FS9When I search for and Airport using the AFCAD editor I get listings such as LFMN MOD 73 Nice/Cote d'AzurLFMN MOD 37 Nice/Cote d'AzurLFMN Stock 7 Nice/Cote d'AzurThe top one which is in bold is found under Aerosoft\France 1\Nice\SceneryThe second one is greyed out and is found under Scenery\Traffic2005AFD\SceneryThe third one (stock) which is also greyed out seems to be found under Scenery\EURW\Scenery\AP949160.BGLFrom this I understand that when I installed Aerosoft's France1 scenery, It installed a new AFCAD file (which controls the AI aircraft and which installs the Navaids into FS9).The second Modified afcad which was installed with my AI package, is greyed out. Does this mean that it is no longer used, and if so do I need to delete it. It was installed by Traffic 2005 to update the default airports.Do I go through the Traffic2005 folder removing all the AFCADs which I have newer airports installed for?Thanks for your help.Neil

Hi guys,This may sound stupid, but I don't really understand the basics of AFCADs within FS9When I search for and Airport using the AFCAD editor I get listings such as LFMN MOD 73 Nice/Cote d'AzurLFMN MOD 37 Nice/Cote d'AzurLFMN Stock 7 Nice/Cote d'AzurThe top one which is in bold is found under Aerosoft\France 1\Nice\SceneryThe second one is greyed out and is found under Scenery\Traffic2005AFD\SceneryThe third one (stock) which is also greyed out seems to be found under Scenery\EURW\Scenery\AP949160.BGLFrom this I understand that when I installed Aerosoft's France1 scenery, It installed a new AFCAD file (which controls the AI aircraft and which installs the Navaids into FS9).The second Modified afcad which was installed with my AI package, is greyed out. Does this mean that it is no longer used, and if so do I need to delete it. It was installed by Traffic 2005 to update the default airports.Do I go through the Traffic2005 folder removing all the AFCADs which I have newer airports installed for?Thanks for your help.Neil

While some will disagree, I have always been a believer in having only one active afcad for any given airport. I would suggest moving the one from your Traffic 2005 package to a temp folder for safe keeping.The Stock one which is greyed out is required so do not do anything with it. In my experience, duplicate afcads can cause all sorts of issues including CTD's.

As you see, AFCAD will scan through all your active scenery folders looking for any airport bgl files with ICAO matching the search term. They "greyed out" appearance is to show you that the particular file containing the airport has been (at least partially) replaced by another. The number is the scenery priority as shown in the scenery library (bigger number = higher priority). Any one of the entries can be opened with AFCAD for editing. Having multiple AFCAD modifications is problematic, as it isn't easy to see what parts of the AFCAD edits replace lower priority parts, and which parts are additions to the lower priority parts. scott s..

As David said, it really is best to have only one AFCAD file besides the stock airport. That one should be an add-on for the stock airport, one released for a specific add-on scenery, or one released with the airport scenery. In some cases someone might develop an afcad file for a scenery released by a developer to replace the developer's packaged one to add functionality. Its description will state if that's the case.To disable an afcad I recommend renaming its file extension from .bgl to .bgh. For me that makes it easier to put it back.There is one caveat to the layer count displayed by AFCAD. If you open a layer and it does not show runways and taxiways, etc., but mostly a blank display, it is for adding special properties usually dealing with avionics references and approach code. That type of entry does not count toward the total layer count of two.In your case the Traffic2005 file extension should be renamed or the file moved as it is not for the specific Aerosoft model airport provided but to improve traffic for the stock (default) airport as provided with most traffic packages.

To clarify the Original Posters question about the "stock" airport =quoteThe third one (stock) which is also greyed out seems to be found under Scenery\EURW\Scenery\AP949160.BGLend quoteBe aware that the AP949160.BGL file contains not only that airport's data, but data for as many as 50 or more other airports in the region.That is why one should never attempt to remove any APXXXXXX.BGL file - if you do, you will lose all of the other airport data in the area also.Hope that makes sense.

Thanks everyone for the rapid answers.I have learnt a bit more today.I have removed all the Traffic2005 AFCAD files for addon airports which I have installed since.This all makes sense now.Thanks again,NeilC

Just to give the other side a bit of air time, I have many multiple AFCAD files for many airports and they have caused no problems at all. I have as many as 4 "active" AFCAD files for a given airport.The key is that each one must be in a separate scenery layer. For example:Stock airport - located in default scenery layers (lowest priority).Generic AFCAD file - located in Addon Scenery layer (low priority).Modern Addon AFCAD files - located in modern airport's scenery layer (high priority).Retro Airport AFCAD file - located in retro airport's scenery layer (high priority).If you do this, there should be no problem.Switching eras is as simple as activating one layer, and deactivating the other.Hope this helps,

That's what I originally thought but had observed all of the no-no answers and erroneously passed it on. I'll take the word of a pro AI guy here :)It seems feasible with all of the runway/navaid exclude items hard coded into it.

Just to give the other side a bit of air time, I have many multiple AFCAD files for many airports and they have caused no problems at all. I have as many as 4 "active" AFCAD files for a given airport.The key is that each one must be in a separate scenery layer. For example:Stock airport - located in default scenery layers (lowest priority).Generic AFCAD file - located in Addon Scenery layer (low priority).Modern Addon AFCAD files - located in modern airport's scenery layer (high priority).Retro Airport AFCAD file - located in retro airport's scenery layer (high priority).If you do this, there should be no problem.Switching eras is as simple as activating one layer, and deactivating the other.Hope this helps,

That's what I originally thought but had observed all of the no-no answers and erroneously passed it on. I'll take the word of a pro AI guy here :)It seems feasible with all of the runway/navaid exclude items hard coded into it.

I agree with Tom and have used several layers of AFCADs in a similar way.The only small rider I would add is that all of the AFCADs must have the same co-ordinates. Some add-on scenery designers will use different ones (probably because they are more accurate than MS's although it makes no difference to how Flight Simulator works) and whilst this seems to give no problem with a single additional AFCAD, it can cause software crashes if you have multiple ones.I suspect this is what has given rise to the myth that you cannot have multiple AFCADs.John

I think it is very important not to confuse the method outlined by Tom with the potential problem of having two "duplicate" afcads in the same scenery subfolder.This can happen! FS does not look at how a bgl is named - it looks for data inside the bgl to determine if it is an "afcad" or some other element. Therefore an afcad can carry any external name. It does not need to have the usual AF2 as a part of the name.I have run across a number of airport enhancements which appeared, at first look, to not have an associated afcad. No bgls were named in such a way as to suggest there was an afcad included.It would be very easy then for a user to download and install an afcad for such an airport - installing it in the same scenery subfolder. That would result in two afcads for the same airport in the same scenery subfolder.Now if the two (named differently) were "exact" duplicates, there might not be a problem.But as John pointed out, if there are subtle differences, such as coordinates, that may confuse the sim and lead to a CTD. For the simmer who may have limited knowledge of how things actually work, I think it best to avoid the potential of duplicates whenever possible.That would include, but not be limited, to always unzipping any new enhancemnt to a temporary folder first and checking it out throughly before manually moving things where they should go.

I fully agree, David - two AFCAD files (even if they are not named as such) in the same folder is to be avoided at all costs. I load an airport into AFCAD to find such things - it will usually list two files with the same scenery layer in that case.But you also have to be very careful, since programs like the ILS Approach Creator will create another file that can be listed by AFCAD and appear a duplicate, but it has no airport information (other than approaches) in it. When loaded into AFCAD, it appears to be a blank screen except for the airport reference point. DO NOT save the file if loaded into AFCAD, or you will lose your approaches.Hope this helps,