EFB not seeing add-on airports

[Dreamflight767 312]

Good Morning:

I have my add-on airports stored on a separate drive outside my sims (P3Dv4) main folder.  I noticed that EFB is only scanning the sims main folder.  Is there away to select the locations the EFB scans to capture that add-on scenery?

Thank you.

[downscc 1,327]

The EFB scan doesn't care where your scenery files are, mine are on a separate drive too, as long as P3D knows where they are.  If the scenery is working in P3D then EFB will find it using the P3D add on scenery configuration file that P3D creates when scanning scenery entries.

The whole idea behind using addon xml files was to allow 3d party stuff to be separate from P3D and still used by P3D.  Of course, this isn't new.  The legacy scenery.cfg also allowed scenery items to be located outside of P3D folder structure.

Please be a little more specific.  What items are not seen by the EFB?  How do you know this?

[vc10man 732]

Great answer, Dan, as I am on the verge of acquiring the 748i to augment my current 744, and I too keep large size sceneries on a separate drive but are seen via the v4 Addons.

[Dreamflight767 312]

Hi Dan:

Well I have add-on scenery for ZBAA.  I have run the EFB scenery scan.  When I am at ZBAA and zoom in on the ND for the taxi map, the ND map does not display anything east of RY36R.  In short, the map on the ND is displaying the default airport and not the add-on scenery which includes TWYs, RWYs, and terminals east of RY36R.

[ViperXBR 32]

I'm having the exact same problem.

[GCBraun 2,392]

I have also experience this and it seems that doing a scan (not the quick one) and re-launching the sim was the way to fix it. 

[ViperXBR 32]

10 hours ago, GCBraun said:

I have also experience this and it seems that doing a scan (not the quick one) and re-launching the sim was the way to fix it. 

Thanks!  That worked for me.

So whenever we make any scenery change, we have to start P3D twice now for this to work?

Cheers.

[downscc 1,327]

1 hour ago, ViperXBR said:

Thanks!  That worked for me.

So whenever we make any scenery change, we have to start P3D twice now for this to work?

Cheers.

Hi Todd... no, this shouldn't be required and I am interested in why there is a need to uncheck the quick scan.  I suspect it might be how the WFSS installer for ZBAA might be registering the scenery within P3D.  I cannot confirm that because I always take whatever the installer has done and change it as necessary so that all my sceneries are the same way.  I do that because I have so many...and because I'm OCD.  My ZBAA is registered using an add-on.xml in a C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\WFSS folder.

Sometimes developers use the other P3D SDK recommended method of creating an item in the C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\add-ons.cfg file.  And sometimes they will add the scenery to the legacy scenery.cfg file.  Regardless, all three methods should be recognized by the EFB scan so I am asking any of you with this issue to please check how yours is installed and report back with that info.

If you want to dig a little deeper, the EFB scan generates a text data file <p3d>\PMDG\EFB\EFB Database\BGLMapAddons.txt.  If you have a text editor that can search for text look for your ZBAA entry.  Mine is:

ZBAA;PEK;Beijing Capital;Beijing;;China;D:\ADDON\WFSS\WFSS-BEIJING INTL ZBAA P3DV4\DATA\ZBAA\SCENERY\ZBAA_P4.bgl;12467

Note my ZBAA is located in a D:\ADDON set of folders, which is on a separate drive from P3D and the quick scan picks it up no problem.  I'm wondering how your's is different.

[Dreamflight767 312]

Howdy:

So I'm not "technical" at all, please forgive me.  I am using freeware airport located here in the scenery library.  I have it installed on my "E" drive while my sim is installed on my "D" drive.

After installing the scenery in the E drive, I went into the sim scenery library and added the scenery.  So my chain in the sim's scenery library is E/P3D Add-Ons/ZBAA.  The scenery loads in the sim fine.

However, again, when I try to view the airport on the ND, the sim's default scenery is what is being displayed.

I did notice that when I did the quick scan in the EFB, it appears to only be scanning the D drive which, again, where both the sim's root folder and 748 are installed.

Not sure if that helps.  But thanks for yours!

[downscc 1,327]

2 hours ago, Dreamflight767 said:

After installing the scenery in the E drive, I went into the sim scenery library and added the scenery.  So my chain in the sim's scenery library is E/P3D Add-Ons/ZBAA.  The scenery loads in the sim fine

So the scenery is added to the scenery.cfg file?  When you look at the P3D Scenery Library, you see the ZBAA listed and the check box is not greyed out?

When I first got the WFSS ZBAA scenery I noticed that although the scenery had both East runways, the AF file only had the two West runways. I contacted them and they sent me an updated AF file that has all four runways.  Be sure your ZBAA is up to date.  I just had an update from SimMarket for a new ZBAA a week or so ago.

[mfrantz 45]

The "Quick Scan" check box for the addon scenery affects only ORBX scenery entries. ORBX Global, Vectors and Region products install a very large amount of scenery areas and bgl files. When you have the "Quick Scan" box checked scanning of several ORBX folders and files that we have confirmed that they do not include useful information for the EFB (valid airport AFCAD  files) are skipped to speed up the scanning process. We provide the option to perform a full scan instead if you wish (unchecked box), just in case it may ever turn out that there was an bug in our selection logic that results in skipping valid ORBX files, or in case ORBX folder and naming conventions change in a future ORBX release and this affects our skipping logic.

For non ORBX addon sceneries the "Quick Scan" check box is completely irrelevant.

Aaron,

As Dan said, check the <p3d>\PMDG\EFB\EFB Database\BGLMapAddons.txt  to confirm which file is read for ZBAA. If the correct path entry is included in this file  (E:\P3D Add-Ons\ZBAA\Scenery/<xxx>.bgl)  then the airport map is getting it's data from this file and draws what is included in this AFCAD file.

The only case that this file would be ignored will be if a second addon (not default) ZBAA exists and has a higher priority in the scenery library.

 

[ViperXBR 32]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the info.  I did check that BGLMapAddons.txt file and the appropriate add-ons were there.  Looks like the re-start after the scan was all that was required.

So I just need to understand the the process for this.  Does it go like this?

1. Install new scenery and add to scenery library(if necessary).  I use AddonOrganizer to confirm this.

2. Startup P3D and load up the -8.

3. Run the scan in the EFB where it says "Memo".

4. Once completed, shutdown P3D completely.

5. Start P3D once again and load the -8 once again and new add-on updates should now be there.

Please confirm if this is indeed correct.

Cheers!

[scandinavian13 5,192]

1 hour ago, ViperXBR said:

shutdown P3D completely.

This is not required.

[Dreamflight767 312]

Hi:

I did as others suggested.  Un-checked fast scan, restarted the EFB, and restarted the sim.  It now shows my updated scenery.  Thanks everyone.

[GCBraun 2,392]

4 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

This is not required.

It seems to be. At leat it was for me on every single instance where I installed a new airport. The others above seem to be confirming it.

Not a big hassle, nevertheless.