Well I finally tweaked my way into scenery H*ll by reordering and renumbering items in Scenery.cfg because they had gotten out of order or large gaps in numbering. 

Through this process I learned about the importance of setting the ORBX insertion point which I had previously not known about.

Even though I tried using the Lorby Scenery Export utility from makerwys.exe via Radar Contact 4.3, the layering is still all messed up and confused where half of my airports wont load correctly (no buildings but gates are there and so are runways/taxiways.

 

MY QUESTION:    To fix this, is it best to uninstall then reinstall P3D5.31 Content and then manually add all of my airports back to the scenery library?   I have a total of 631 "Areas".

Thanks for any insights/suggestions!

In case it will help, here are links to my scenery.cfg and add-ons.cfg backups: 

  Scenery.zip

add-ons.cfg

Edited June 28, 2025Jun 28 by SnoBrit
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23 hours ago, SnoBrit said:

Well I finally tweaked my way into scenery H*ll by reordering and renumbering items in Scenery.cfg because they had gotten out of order or large gaps in numbering. 

<SNIP>

Thanks for any insights/suggestions!

What I do is create some "empty" folders configured to show up as scenery folders and use them as markers for actual scenery alignment.

e.g. I create an empty folder named "Addon Scenery Marker Mesh TOP" where within there are 2 x empty folders named as Texture & Scenery, in this instance the folder marks the top of mesh (Freemesh) where the mesh folders all go below.

I use Lorby to place the mesh marker folder at the top of the default P3D scenery list and move the mesh folders to align in their appropriate order just below the marker.

Same applies for other sceneries and you can create as many of these marker folders as you like, they can also be numbered to help picture the order structure.

As the marker folders are empty they show as purple in Lorby Addon Organiser or as pink if you configure the folders as not active, the colouring makes them easy to spot and helps in overall alignment.

Note if you've a few Orbx folders (I have a lot built up over quite some years), I get the Orbx tool to set their insertion points using an Orbx marker folder, Orbx does well at looking after itself but tends to mess up others, this is where Lorby comes into play.

Once Orbx is out of the way, it's time to position those other sceneries (using Lorby) where typically other sceneries will go above Orbx where higher overrides lower, meaning truly global items you'd want at the top, e.g. Time Zone Fixer, Libraries etc.

Can take quite a bit of time to move things around... such is life...

Once completed you can also use Lorby to backup all the P3D config files to a zip file, so just in case things get out of hand again you've  a backup of the affected config file you can restore to start again.

Cheers

Hello SnoBrit!

I'll try to help you with your issue. I'm on P3D v4.5, but I guess it's the same in P3D v5. The gaps in the Scenery.cfg numbering are supposed to be there because sceneries added with the xml method are using the missing numbers. Then both methods normally ends up in ascending order in Scenery Library like this:
Scenery.cfg + Addon.xml = Scenery Library

Here's an example from my scenery.cfg where number 237 is missing:

[Area.236]
Title=LGZA Zakynthos
Local=D:\Addons\LGZA Zakynthos
Layer=236
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

[Area.238]
Title=Mega Airport Rome
Local=Ecosystem\aerosoft\Rome2015
Layer=238
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

Number 237 was in my case the airport Rhodes which was added with the xml-method.

Back to your case. I had a look at your scenery.cfg and maybe you can restore it (if you don't have a backup). Here's the last scenery in your Scenery.cfg:

[Area.436]
Title=New Orleans_KMSY
Local=C:\P3Dv5\KMSY14
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=632

As you see, the Area number and the Layer number is different, but they shold be the same. I recommend to take your time and go through the whole Scenery.cfg and change every Area number back to the same as Layer number. As an example your last scenery  should be [Area.632] (and not 436) like this:

[Area.632]
Title=New Orleans_KMSY
Local=C:\P3Dv5\KMSY14
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=632

Then save your Scenery.cfg and start P3D and see if it works. Later you can move on to scenery layering. I use two ORBX insertion points and Lorby Addon Orgainzer to layer my sceneries. I'm not familiar with "Lorby Scenery Export utility" as you mentioned, but I hope that it has not messed things up as well.

Edited June 29, 2025Jun 29 by avusm575

Thank you BOTH for excellent guidance and explaining how it works with the gaps in numbering, etc.   

I did a bunch of work on my scenery file yesterday and now everything seems to be working, but with this guidance from you two I can ensure its right and keep it right going forward. 

And Rogen, I absolutely love your strategy for organizing using Lorby and will do the same!

You should always make a backup of the Scenery.cfg and other important files before you go tinkering with them so you can revert back if necessary.  It's also a good idea to make a backup of your Scenery.cfg now that you have it set correctly in case something goes wrong again in the future.