I'm trying to "hangar" most of my third party downloaded aircraft into an internal SSD that is only currently used for Orbx, and other add-on scenery. The add-on a/c I want to move are located on a variety of drives. Some are in the P3D root drive and others are scattered across my computer.

As an example I'll just use Airplane Heaven Cessna 140. I have put it on my F drive but can't access it in P3D.

Path is F:\Addon Aircraft P3D\AH_Cessna140\Content\SimObjects\Airplanes\AH_Cessna140

I've tried to copy some of the template XML's but I'm doing something wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>AH_Cessna140</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>AH_Cessna140.</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>SimObjects</Category>
<Path>SimObjects\Airplanes</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Effects</Category>
<Path>Content\Effects</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Sound</Category>
<Path>Content\Sound</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Gauges</Category>
<Path>Content\Gauges</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

 

Although I don't use it, (I use SimStarter) Lorby Addon Manager might do this for you. I'd go over to their forum and ask. Oliver is very helpful and will steer you in the right direction.

2 hours ago, mslim said:

As an example I'll just use Airplane Heaven Cessna 140.

I used Orbx Central to create a specific library into which the aircraft was placed.

e.g. The library path is H:\Addons_P3D\01.Aircraft\Orbx\p3dv4

and under the library root is "Cessna 140 (PBR)" holding all the aircraft folders and the add-on.xml (in the spoiler).

And the suggestion of the Lorby Prepar3D Addon Organizer from @newtie is also a good option, it's what I use to manage my addons and their discovery paths.

Cheers

Spoiler

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
  <AddOn.Name>Aeroplane Heaven Cessna 140 (PBR)</AddOn.Name>
  <AddOn.Description>This add-on package contains Aeroplane Heaven Cessna 140 (PBR).</AddOn.Description>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Effects</Category>
    <Path>Effects</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>SimObjects</Category>
    <Path>SimObjects\Airplanes</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Sound</Category>
    <Path>SimObjects\Airplanes\AH_Cessna140\sound</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Sound</Category>
    <Path>SimObjects\Airplanes\AH_Cessna140 - floats\sound</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>
  <AddOn.Component>
    <Category>Sound</Category>
    <Path>SimObjects\Airplanes\AH_Cessna140\panel\sound</Path>
  </AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

 

It looks appear as if you've not entered the pull details for the path. Try, for example

<Path>F:Addon Aircraft P3D/AH_Cessna/Content/SimObjects/Airplanes</Path>

and so on.

 

I am not sure if the direction of slashes is important.

 

Hi.

As mentioned earlier you must indeed set the Full path to your airplane Addon, e.g.:
E:\FS-Addon\Airplanes\BAC 1-11 Family\SimObjects\Airplanes

So, the above path is an example for the AddOn.xml in the P3D Addons folder while the
path definition that was provided in the first post in the topic is a relative path, which I use for the physical
location folder xml file, and I use the xml file with full paths in the designated P3D Addons folder (paths for Effects, Sounds etc.)
Now if you are in Windows explorer and you have opted 'Display full path in the title bar' (Views option),
then you can simply copy the address of the root path of your AddOn folder, which I do to prevent typos.  
As you see in my BAC 1-11 Family path definition the separation character is a backslash character.

Important to know that if you don't put your addon into the 'official' Prepar3D vX Add-ons folder  
you will have to use 2 different xml files. The xml file in Prepar3D vX Add-ons folder, in which you've
to create a folder for your addon where you put your add-on.xml which will contain the full paths.
The other add-on.xml file in your aircraft addon folder will have to contain relative paths.
HTH.

I've experienced that if you have a lot of AddOns including airplanes startup of Prepar3D takes a longer
time to load for me then when install my addon airplanes directly in P3D's SimObjects\Airplanes folder,
Which I find strange as Lockheed Martin recommends the AddOns install.
Anyone an idea on the longer loading time?

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by Flanker251
Expansion reply plus typo

It is not neccessary to set full paths for subfolders in the .xml file.

If you want to use relative paths, use .\

For example

<Category>Sound</Category>
	<Path>Content\Sound</Path>
</AddOn.Component>

will work, if you change it to

<Category>Sound</Category>
	<Path>.\Content\Sound</Path>
</AddOn.Component>

you can even move all the way up and down in the folder structure using things like "..\", which will refer to the parent directory. The relative path is always dependant on where the add-on.xml resides.

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by roesti

The types of xml addon path configs in P3D are "Discovery" and "Package".

Where Package is your application's add-on.xml

And the Discovery path is where you drop in your application and its add-on.xml

Where the add-on.xml file is "discovered", read and the addon subsequently added to the P3D library.

You can create your own "Discovery" paths (this is what an Orbx library is), for example I have 29 discovery paths where I install various types of xml addons.

There are the Orbx paths broken down into 5 separate paths (Libraries, Cities, Airports, Regions, Global) with the remainder mainly based around aircraft (Carenado for example as I have a lot of Carenado's planes) although I do have separate for Utilities and AI.

Note that adding via the xml method does have drawbacks, mostly because of an assumption of previous behaviour of installing directly to sim.

e.g. a developer in FSX days would install all effects in to the sim/Effects folder where the effects are available to all of their sceneries with no further effort required from themselves and they may not include said fx files in their next scenery which isn't a problem if installed to the sim but will show as a problem if installed to an xml path, likewise if files are updated by later releases where they are overwritten in the sim but not in individual addon xml installs i.e. versioning issues where add-on A & B both use a particular file, but B is never updated.

You can also end up with parts not intended to be displayed being displayed due to one addon xml having the displayed items, and another not having them.

Order can also be an issue for sceneries when added via an add-on.xml, this is where the Lorby Addon Organiser is great for managing.

For the most part such occurances are unintended by developers, the result is just somethng they didn't previously need to think about.

Discovery path example clips:

[DiscoveryPath.0]
Path=H:\Addons_P3D\01.Aircraft\Orbx\p3dv4
Title=Orbx Aircraft
Active=TRUE
~

[DiscoveryPath.10]
Path=H:\Addons_P3D\01.Aircraft\Carenado
Title=Carenado
Active=TRUE

~

[DiscoveryPath.16]
Path=H:\Addons_P3D\02.AI
Title=A.I.
Active=TRUE

 

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by Rogen