P3Dv5 - Scanning for addon airports

[ThierryD 2]

I have been using PSXT for a year or so and have always used a list of addon folders for airports (i.e. not the automatic feature). Note that I have P3D installed to a custom folder and numerous addon airports are installed in the main P3D folder, in their respective folder (FlyTampa, Simmarket, FlightBeam, etc.). Accordingly one of the airport folders defined in the parameters.xml file was the root P3D folder. It had worked well for me but stopped working with a recent upgrade. The new third-party airports folder now seems to contain all the same files as the stock airport folders.

The reason I had to use the main P3D folder and not the individual subfolders is because I have more than 10 folders (in total, not just under the main P3D folder) containing addon airports. I was able to temporarily work around this issue by only selecting some of my addon airport folders but I'd like to be able to have them all as you can imagine.

Is it still possible to define the main P3D folder as an addon airport folder in the parameters.xml file? If not, would it be possible for the scan to skip the default airports in that folder? Alternatively, could the use of more than 10 addon airport folders be supported?

Thanks in advance,

[kiek 1,229]

Hi,

The easiest solution is to define a folder say D:\Addons and to copy all your airports in separate folders, like D:\Addons\FlyTampa, D:\Addons\SimMarket, and so on.

Then you need only 1 afolder0=D:\Addons parameter.

Do note that the airports are still in P3D, the copies are only there for the scans of the .bgl files.  You may delete them afterwards, if you switch Airports scan off. Or just let them stay.

 

[ThierryD 2]

Thanks for suggesting a workaround. I understand that it would do the trick, still it would be nice to have less of a manual process and also save that hard drive space. Do you think it would be possible to exclude the folder containing the default airports, which in P3D I am assuming is \Scenery or maybe just allow the definition of an exclude folder in the paramteres.xml file?

Just a suggestion.

Thanks,

[kiek 1,229]

14 hours ago, ThierryD said:

Thanks for suggesting a workaround.

Did you try an Automatic scan already?

 

and what happens if you use just one parameter, like this?:

    <parameter name="afolder0" value="D:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5" />

If I do that I'm getting addon airports only, not the stock airports...

Edited August 8, 2022 by kiek

[ThierryD 2]

6 hours ago, kiek said:

Did you try an Automatic scan already?

For some reason Automatic never worked for me. It always gives me Error 49. I have tried with a list of airport folders or with the list all empty. Same issue.

6 hours ago, kiek said:

and what happens if you use just one parameter, like this?:

    <parameter name="afolder0" value="D:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5" />

If I do that I'm getting addon airports only, not the stock airports...

When trying this (which on my system is "C:\Prepar3D v5") it gives me more than 6,000 airports, which I am pretty sure includes all the default ones.

Anyway, I understand this is a moot point as v31.15.5 now allows 20 folders! Thanks for adding that.