Just did a re-install of P3D and while installing the simulator and addons went pretty fast, AI traffic took ages. Installed WoAI and some airlines which are most important to me with AIFP when suddenly, a wild thought appeared in my ever-ingenious brain.

 

Is it (theoretically) possible to put the installed files on a USB drive and when re-installing just putting them back in their respective folders? AI planes with installed textures and aircraft.cfg entries in the SimObjects/Airplanes folder, flight plan files in Scenery/World/Scenery, textures into textures etc. instead of using the WoAI installer and AIFP?

 

Simply copying the ready files into folders would save much time...

Yes, copy and paste works wonders. I moved my entire AI fleet and flightpans from FSXSE to P3D with a simple copy and paste.

 

If you want to save space you can even keep your entire AI fleet on a storage drive (non sim drive) and just junction link or mlink it. I do this with my addon scenery and my Orbx.

 

just make sure the entries in P3D.cfg file are correct and know where to locate the folder.

I took a backup of simobjects/airplanes and the scenery/world/scenery folder before reinstalling P3D and after install, I just copied them back and Bingo it worked. However it bothers me that all the ai are in the same folder as my default and installed addons planes, so Canuck do you say I can have them on a seperate HDD and just link to them, how? Do I have to correct the path in every ai planes aircraft.cfg file?

Let's say I have P3D/simobjects/airplanes on my J: drive and want to have all ai planes on my F: drive, how do I set it up then?

So if you know how to mlink or junction link its pretty easy.   Make a folder in P3D/simobjects/ called AI_Aircraft so its like this P3D/simobjects/AI_Aircraft.  This folder should be empty. 

 

Put a folder on your F drive called AI_Aircraft. All your AI aircraft folders should be in this folder.  

 

Use mlink or junction link to link the P3D/simobjects/AI_Aircraft to F:/AI_Aircraft

 

Prepar3d has a nice explanation on the simobjects.cfg setup here.

http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv2/LearningCenter/general/path_configurations.html

Even easier is to just store your AI completely separate from your sim. Then add the aircraft via the simobjects.cfg and the traffic via the scenery.cfg. Super simple.

Relieving to hear that. I use freeware AI addon sounds too and I have to edit every single AI aircraft to make them use the new sounds, takes ages too.

 

 

 

Then add the aircraft via the simobjects.cfg and the traffic via the scenery.cfg.

 

How do I do that? I mean what do I type into the cfg files?

Yep, what do we type in the cfg's?

Example please.

 It's all very basic stuff really, simply use your current simobjects.cfg as a template.

 

You already have your SimObjects\Airplanes. Copy that entry

 

[Entry.2]
PATH=SimObjects\Airplanes
TITLE=Default Airplanes
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=true
 

Paste it at the bottom making sure to number the Entry to whatever is next in sequence and edit the Path and title to however you have your AI Aircraft setup. For instance, I have all of my AI on it's own SSD so my entries look similar to this.

 

[Entry.12]
PATH=F:\Aircraft
TITLE=Aircraft
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=true

[Entry.13]
PATH=F:\Aircraft_Military
TITLE=Aircraft_Military
ACTIVE=false
REQUIRED=true

[Entry.14]
PATH=F:\Aircraft_Military_Transports
TITLE=Aircraft_Military_Transports
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=true

[Entry.15]
PATH=F:\Aircraft_Military_outside_NA
TITLE=Aircraft_Military_outside_NA
ACTIVE=false
REQUIRED=true

[Entry.16]
PATH=F:\Aircraft_Military_Transports_Outside_NA
TITLE=Aircraft_Military_Transports_Outside_NA
ACTIVE=false
REQUIRED=true
 

I have a shortcut to my simobjects.cfg on my desktop so that I can quickly enable or disable (through simply changing ACTIVE=True/False) aircraft folders depending on where I plan on flying to help decrease start times. It's configurable to any way you want it.

Hmm, tried searching my HDD's for the simobjects.cfg, but can't find it. Where is it, and yes I have show hidden files enabled.

 P3d v3's simobjects.cfg is located here.        C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3

So basically I just have to change the path line of the default aircraft entry to the new path?

So basically I just have to change the path line of the default aircraft entry to the new path?

 

 No, you make a new path to where you store your AI aircraft. If you just change the path you will lose all of your flyable aircraft.

 No, you make a new path to where you store your AI aircraft. If you just change the path you will lose all of your flyable aircraft.

 

I meant after relocating the files I'll just have to change the path line to the new path?

 Yeah you bet, same with changing the location of your AI traffic files in the scenery.cfg