Firstly please excuse me if these two products do differently things but on face value it seemed to me that they both did a similar thing.

I have been using Modman for some time to overcome intermittent problems I experience installing some addons especially aircraft with the error 'filename too long'. I can add such packages via Modman after zipping them but when I add them to Modman it does a lot of 'work' which seemed to me be the zip file being unzipped and stored somewhere affects free space on the drive.

Does Addons Linker work differently to this?

Does it overcome the intermittent problem I experience with the error 'filesize too large' when adding addons to the community folder without having to zip the addon?

What other advantages does it have over ModMan?

Thanks.

I could probably go to 10 pages praising Addons Linker, but I think the simplest thing would be for you to just try it (it's free!) 😉and the GUI is well designed and intuitive.

I've never used Modman, so can't compare - but it looks like it actually manages the unzipping/placing of addons for you. Linker doesn't do that (and I'm glad it doesn't)! I have my own elaborate folder structure for all my aircraft, sceneries and liveries - which Linker manages beautifully. BUT the initial unzip etc. I always do manually, checking each as I go - as I often find errors in aircraft.cfg or the need to rewrite them slightly to conform to the insane new 2024 menu grouping.

Is it "filesize too large" or "filename too long"? The the error 'filesize too long' error is often because the addon creator has over-nested the folders - or each folder and sub-folders have overly long names. I often shorten the really bad ones when I install. Unzipping manually in a drive/location that you know has ample space is probably a better procedure.

If you fancy more information about how I use Linker, then try:
https://flightsim.to/file/14298/msfs-addons-linker-general-procedure

It's slightly out of date (now) but you'll get the drift!

Edited April 5, 20251 yr by Adamski_NZ

Thanks.  Yes I meant to type "filename too long". I got it correct the first but not second time in my question. Sorry.

 

 

Hi Jamie,

When extracting files from a zip or Rar file, I use 7-Zip and that gets over the problem of the "filename too long" situation.

I also use Addon linker all of the time prior to launching MSFS - it's brilliant as it means that I only load those files that are needed  for a given flight.

Best regards,

Peter

Thanks Peter.

I will get 7-zip.

I need to investigate Addon Linker further after finding out that it can control what files (which I assume are in the community folder) are loaded for a given flight although apart from aircraft (easy) one would need to remember what scenery addons are required (not so easy unless familiar with the flight)?

Regards

John

 

11 minutes ago, Jarnie said:

I need to investigate Addon Linker further after finding out that it can control what files (which I assume are in the community folder) are loaded for a given flight although apart from aircraft (easy) one would need to remember what scenery addons are required (not so easy unless familiar with the flight)?

The beauty of Linker is that all your addons can be placed outside the Community folder. This gives you the ability to place them all in meaningful folders/subfolders.

I have all my sceneries and liveries separated out into geographical blocks. I also separate out civil from miltary aircraft+liveries, which makes it easier to narrow down the selection menu in MSFS when starting a session in either mode.

Linker also gives you the option of setting *dependencies* between various addons, but I find it easier just to set up preset groups with what's needed per preset. There really is a lot to like about Linker.

4 minutes ago, Adamski_NZ said:

The beauty of Linker is that all your addons can be placed outside the Community folder. This gives you the ability to place them all in meaningful folders/subfolders.

That is a great feature and one which will be great for me especially liveries.

Being able to group is another great feature.

I just determined that ModMan seems to only allow a zip folder to be added (and I thought that I remembered that) and then it unzips it anyway, possibly using 7-zip as I never get "filename too long" like I do when I unzip a download using the old zip (not 7zip) and add the unzipped folder to community folder which adds to storage space on a drive (ie having the zipped folder and then unzipped contents within Modman).

The only downside I can think of is that it might slow down MSFS startup as I suspect it has to be runs first and will copy files? HOWEVER then MSFS will only have to load required ('Community') files instead of loading all of them?

Regards

John

 

+1 on Addons Linker. Very straight forward to use.

After reading Adamaski_NZ's document I wonder if the 'addon' folder created to store everything can be on the same drive as where MSFS is installed or better somewhere else?

It's just that my MSFS is installed on a dedicated high speed  M.2 SSD drive and my other drives are the slower HDD hard drives.

 

26 minutes ago, Jarnie said:

The only downside I can think of is that it might slow down MSFS startup as I suspect it has to be runs first and will copy files? HOWEVER then MSFS will only have to load required ('Community') files instead of loading all of them?

No... Linker only creates *links* in your Community folder. Nothung gets physically copied. The only thing to watch out for is to ensure that the drive you're using for all your addons is a fast one and has enough space on it. Mind you - I have liveries on one drive, scenery on another. It's very flexible.

11 minutes ago, Jarnie said:

After reading Adamaski_NZ's document I wonder if the 'addon' folder created to store everything can be on the same drive as where MSFS is installed or better somewhere else?

It's just that my MSFS is installed on a dedicated high speed  M.2 SSD drive and my other drives are the slower HDD hard drives.

You might need to check that the Community Folder is actually on your SSD drive (just in case!).

What might help (if your HDDs are way too slow) is to keep commonly used (or global) addons in the Community Folder. For instance, if 99% of your flights are in the Pacific area, keep all those where they are - and only relocate the less common areas.

Jarnie, I whole heartily support Addon Linker. This is, IMO, one of the most powerful addons available for MSFS, and most useful. You can configure flights to any option you want. For Instance. You can create Military AC in Asia, Commercial AC in South America, bush flying in North America, GA flights in Australia. You can create "presets" that once configured to your particular flight, you can select which AC, liveries, scenery, scenery libraries and any specific utilities that you might use. Once the Presets are built and named, then later, at any time, you can just click on the descriptive "Preset" and Addon Linker will auto load your configuration. No more spending fifteen minutes selecting, sceneries, AC and specific scenery libraries you might need. Once created, one click on the preset of choice and only those items are loaded into the community folder. This makes for quicker loads and by customizing the storage location of these folders,( which I store most on slower drives), only the small link is stored in the community folder on your active M.2 SSD, you trim your active drive and hasten the sim load. This is absolutely the most essential addon available. It might take awhile getting comfortable, but definitely worth it. YT is your friend.

1 hour ago, Jarnie said:

I wonder if the 'addon' folder created to store everything can be on the same drive as where MSFS is installed or better somewhere else?

You can have multiple 'addon" folders on separate drives... entirely up to you.

2 hours ago, Adamski_NZ said:

You might need to check that the Community Folder is actually on your SSD drive (just in case!).

No the community folder is on the same drive as most of the MSFS installation as I chose to keep MSFS on a dedicated (logical) drive - my M.2 SSD drive is partitioned into C and D logical drives.

I have found since my last post that I have another SSD drive not quite as fast as the M.2 SSD drive but I probably wouldn't notice the difference and so will place my Addons folder on it.

Thanks too everyone for your feedback and especially that nothing gets copied as the Addons linker (I guess as the name suggests) merely creates links.

 

I heard the great reviews of Addons Linker but resisted getting it while I was on MSFS 2020, partly because I didn't have very many addons. Then I got a new computer and upgraded to 2024, and started to get a few sceneries and enhancements. Since I was starting fresh, I decided to give Addons Linker a try, and within 10 minutes I was sold. It's a great product, easy to learn, and now it's hard to imagine working in the MSFS environment without it.

I get the impression that the setup might take a while but after that it is so simple and fast. I like the way that the user can separate different addons by type.