AFCAD Placement Question

[gregbrady930 0]

Hey folks,A quick question please and maybe this is the wrong forum...What's the difference putting AFCAD files in the FS9/Addon/scenery folder compared to putting them into the FS9/Scenery/World/Scenery folder? I heard AFCAD files won't work if they are in a scenery folder next to a Texture folder containing files? If so, I see texture files in my FS9/Scenery/World/Texture folder. Where's the best place to put my AFCADs?Would this work? Putting them here: FS9/Addon Scenery/AFCADs/Scenery with no texture folder? I just wondered why different designers suggest you put AFCADs in different folders and not just one.Thanks,Greg

[scruffyduck 4]

Hey folks,A quick question please and maybe this is the wrong forum...What's the difference putting AFCAD files in the FS9/Addon/scenery folder compared to putting them into the FS9/Scenery/World/Scenery folder? I heard AFCAD files won't work if they are in a scenery folder next to a Texture folder containing files? If so, I see texture files in my FS9/Scenery/World/Texture folder. Where's the best place to put my AFCADs?Would this work? Putting them here: FS9/Addon Scenery/AFCADs/Scenery with no texture folder? I just wondered why different designers suggest you put AFCADs in different folders and not just one.Thanks,Greg

If you put your AFCAD file in World\Scenery then your changes will not show up. It is a matter of what gets loaded last. The only time we put anything into the World\scenery folder is if we want to change a fundamental value of the airport (like altitude or name) in this case FS uses the first data it reads. For everything else it uses the last folder. Since Addon Scenery\scenery is read after the stock folders your AFCAD changes will show up. Generally texture folders are irrelevant to AFCAD files.

[N60JBravo 27]

What's the difference putting AFCAD files in the FS9/Addon/scenery folder compared to putting them into the FS9/Scenery/World/Scenery folder?

Sometimes people will adjust an airport's elevation with Afcad-type files. The only time you would put an Afcad-type file in FS9/Scenery/World/Scenery is to get AI to work with another Afcad-type file that has adjusted the field elevation. This deals with a quirk in the way FS reads field elevation data differently for AI than it does for user-planes and scenery elements. These Afcad-type files are commonly called stub Afcads.Any other elements in a stub Afcad would be overwritten by the default airport info as FS climbs the Scenery Library "ladder" when loading scenery.

I heard AFCAD files won't work if they are in a scenery folder next to a Texture folder containing files?

You heard wrong, that is simply not true.Landclass files that have an empty texture folder paired with the scenery folder they are in can cause a memory leak, but not Afcads.

Would this work? Putting them here: FS9/Addon Scenery/AFCADs/Scenery with no texture folder?

That is what I do with Afcads that are not associated with a scenery addon. If I add an addon that has other files besides the Afcad, the Afcad goes in the addon's scenery folder.

I just wondered why different designers suggest you put AFCADs in different folders and not just one.

Different people have different ideas about what works best. Unfortunately some of them do not understand all the ins and outs of how the sim works and will provide incorrect info in their readme files. This can be more commonly seen in freeware, though there is no test or certification of FS knowledge required to release scenery addons, freeware or payware.regards,Joe[edit]sorry Jon, you posted while I was typing[/edit]

[gregbrady930 0]

Hey that's great info. Thanks a lot guys for clearing that up for me. Also I was wondering if I change a .bgl file to say, .bgl2 will this cause the file to not work? Thanks again.

[scruffyduck 4]

sorry Jon, you posted while I was typing

No problem at all - it could just have been the other way around :(

Hey that's great info. Thanks a lot guys for clearing that up for me. Also I was wondering if I change a .bgl file to say, .bgl2 will this cause the file to not work? Thanks again.

I seem to recall that FS only checks the first three characters of the extension. Thus bgl2 might get read. However it would be bad practice to do this. If I want to temporarily exclude a file I add a new extension on the end - .dnu (as in do not use). So xxxx.bgl becomes xxxx.bgl.dnu. That way neither FS or me (more importantly) can get confused

[gregbrady930 0]

No problem at all - it could just have been the other way around :smile:I seem to recall that FS only checks the first three characters of the extension. Thus bgl2 might get read. However it would be bad practice to do this. If I want to temporarily exclude a file I add a new extension on the end - .dnu (as in do not use). So xxxx.bgl becomes xxxx.bgl.dnu. That way neither FS or me (more importantly) can get confused

lol, thanks a lot for the help. I'll do as you suggested.

[gregbrady930 0]

I have put all my AFCAD files into fs9/addonscenery/AFCAD/. I have a bunch of files from AVSIM Russia and others (Eastern Europe AFCADs packs) that require the placement of excludes and flatten files. I THINK I did right by creating FS9/ADDONSCENERY/EXCLUDE folder and putting the excludes only into there. I then put the EXCLUDE folder above the AFCAD folder in the Scenery Library. I heard this is correct?Further, I put the flatten files into FS9/SCENERY/WORLD/SCENERY. Or should I put them into another place?I would like some clarification as to what goes over what in the scenery library. Or a reference to a link that would explain this. I noticed I still have autogen trees on the tarmac at Astrakhan and I would like to figure out how to remove the trees. I know many of you out there know this to be an easy procedure I would assume. I would like to learn as well.I downloaded SBuilder but was unable to register the free version.I also downloaded ADE and ExcludeBuilderv2 but am a newbie learning how to use these.Thanks for your continued help guys.Greg Brady

[gregbrady930 0]

I have put all my AFCAD files into fs9/addonscenery/AFCAD/. I have a bunch of files from AVSIM Russia and others (Eastern Europe AFCADs packs) that require the placement of excludes and flatten files. I THINK I did right by creating FS9/ADDONSCENERY/EXCLUDE folder and putting the excludes only into there. I then put the EXCLUDE folder above the AFCAD folder in the Scenery Library. I heard this is correct?Further, I put the flatten files into FS9/SCENERY/WORLD/SCENERY. Or should I put them into another place?I would like some clarification as to what goes over what in the scenery library. Or a reference to a link that would explain this. I noticed I still have autogen trees on the tarmac at Astrakhan and I would like to figure out how to remove the trees. I know many of you out there know this to be an easy procedure I would assume. I would like to learn as well.I downloaded SBuilder but was unable to register the free version.I also downloaded ADE and ExcludeBuilderv2 but am a newbie learning how to use these.Thanks for your continued help guys.Greg Brady

Also, I have some files I assume to be AFCADs but I am wondering why they are in the format of URWA_ADE9_FW . (Obviously Airport Design Editor). Should I assume all of these type of files to be/contain AFCADs?This one came from the Eastern Europe Pack 2 by Fernand Verbraecken.I have another URWA AFCAD from the Avsim Library: mafcad8.zip that I might have to try if I can't get rid of the autogen trees and buildings all over the tarmac. I like keeping autogen cranked to full normally.I love this stuff.Thanks again-Greg