I started out with X-Plane using the basic but rather complete airports by Ted Davis (http://theosdavis.com/xpfiles/downloads_v10.html).

 

He often combines more than one airport in an area pack, such as NYC Area (KJFK, KEWR, KLGA). So now if I wanted to use another KJFK scenery (FRED-E's), is there a way to combine them (whithout having 2 KJFK's sitting on top of each other). Because if I delete Ted's pack, KEWR and KLGA will be gone, too! 

 

Same issue appears in other areas, for example Japan.

 

X-Plane prioritizes loading scenery in the "/Custom Scenery" sub-folders by the alphanumeric name order. So you control the preference of scenery loading by how you name those folders.

 

For example, let's say I have a set of scenery with a bunch of different airports in a folder named "Florida Scenery," including KEYW Key West Intl. Now I download a new scenery file that has just the KEYW airport scenery, and I want to use that instead, but I don't want to lose the rest of those Florida airports. So I put that new scenery in a folder named "_FL KEYW Key West Intl"

 

That underline at the beginning of the folder name forces it to load instead of anything else in a folder below it, based on my plane's Lat/Long location. The rest of the Florida scenery will still load when I fly into those other locations. It can get a bit tricky when airports are very close together, but generally speaking, that's how you do it.

 

You can use any filename convention you want. I use an underline followed by the state name for USA scenery, or the country name for other areas. Like "_FL" and then the airport name for Florida airports, "_NZ" and the airport name for New Zealand airports, and so on. 

X-Plane prioritizes loading scenery in the "/Custom Scenery" sub-folders by the alphanumeric name order. So you control the preference of scenery loading by how you name those folders.

Errm, No. This is no longer correct. Since a few subversions you have inside yourCustom Scenery folder a file scenery_packs.ini

This file now controls what will be loaded first second and so on.

If you start X-Plane it automatically updates this file. ALL new folders are added on top.(It doesn't matter what theirt names are9 wihile deketed folders will be deleted too.

If you want to delay the loading of a file you will have to move its entry down to a lower position.

You also can deactivate a scenery on the file by renaming the SCENERY_PACK in front of your file to SCENERY_PACK_DISABLED .

 

Ifr the author of your new airport you only have to take care that the new airport is higher positioned than the area. If he was lazy he forgot to add exclusion zones on his airports that disable any influences by sceneries that will be loaded later. Than you would hav to add exclusion zones to this scenery by WED or the overlay editor.

Thanks for the input guys. I take away that as long as the airport is above the other in the scenery file AND has exclusion zones, it should work...

I will also try out this promising tool to get a better strucure and overview:

https://github.com/lyckade/xpstart

 

 

Just tried it. EXTREMELY useful!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDckOG4Dgs#t=265

Errm, No. This is no longer correct. Since a few subversions you have inside yourCustom Scenery folder a file scenery_packs.ini

This file now controls what will be loaded first second and so on.

 

Right! I forgot they added this in 10.10, and since I've been adding new files that automatically get prioritized, the alphanumeric naming isn't used. I still rename folder just because it's easier to know what these files are. Scenery designers aren't consistent enough in naming.

 

Anyway, here's a link to how scenery_packs.ini works, and different ways of working with it:

 

http://developer.x-plane.com/2012/07/scenery_packs-ini-what-was-i-thinking/