AFCAD Problem

[flemon]

Hi

I recently reinstalled GSX into P3D v3 (I do not own v4) and it was all working fine. But when I added a freeware Larnaca scenery, I had a problem where GSX was reading the default Larnaca AFCAD and not the new one which was right at the top of the scenery library. Following suggestions on this forum and other forums, I disabled the default Larnaca AFCAD in the P3D/Scenery etc. directory by renaming its end to .OFF. I then opened up P3D again and it worked! The airport customisation window said that it was reading from the AFCAD of the addon scenery.

But when I opened up P3D last night and pressed Ctrl + F12, I got a message from GSX saying 'Could not find valid AFCAD data at this position, services are not available.' I don't understand how this could happen seeming as it was reading off the correct AFCAD the night before and all the services were working. I've since reinstalled the addon scenery but it hasn't worked. All other airports are fine; I also installed a freeware Rome scenery and that has had no problems at all.

Also, the Larnaca addon folder is located in a different drive to P3D; I put payware airports in my P3D drive and non-payware elsewhere to free up space. But all my other freeware airports have worked perfectly so I don't understand why Larnaca isn't working.

So how can I fix this? Is there a way to direct GSX to the correct AFCAD location?

Thanks in advance.

[virtuali]

When you rename a file manually, you must select the "Restart and rebuild airport cache" option from the Couatl menu.

Also, it's not a good idea to remove the default AFCAD. It's possible that freeware scenery was made only as an enhancement of the default file, so it *requires* it. And, if it's made as an enhancement, so it's not self-contained (for example, if it only added buildings), GSX cannot use it, since it can only use a single file at time.

So, for example, a 3rd party scenery that doesn't include runways, taxiways and parkings, but only adds (for example), some parkings or buildings the default one, cannot be used with GSX. The solution, for scenery developers and user knowing how to use ADE, is to first load the Stock data in a project, than add any modifications, and save it back into a new folder, so the new AFCAD would contain all the required data, meaning it's a self-contained airport.

[flemon]

I have opened the freeware AFCAD in ADE and it is indeed a whole redesign of the airport, with more buildings and parking spots than before.
But I'll enable the default AFCAD and try and see if GSX will get directed to a correct AFCAD.

[flemon]

Nope, still no luck. After reinstalling the airport multiple times with the default AFCAD enabled and couatl restarted and forced to rebuild the airport cache, I'm back at square with GSX only allowing me to use the stands in the default AFCAD.

I opened the addon in the ADE and all the stands are there so there can't be a problem with that AFCAD.

Is there anyway I can force couatl to use the addon AFCAD? It's getting rather annoying now due to this stand issue.

[virtuali]

There's always a reason why GSX won't use an addon AFCAD:

- It's on a lower layer than the one it's using

OR

- The ACAD is not self-contained

OR

- The AFCAD contains errors

OR

- The AFCAD is too large to be considered an AFCAD, as explained here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,16598.msg118066.html#msg118066

[flemon]

Hi,

I don't think any of these cases could be the problem as GSX was working with the correct AFCAD only three nights ago and then the next day it went back to the default AFCAD. It seems strange why it would go back to the default when I hadn't changed anything at all.

[virtuali]

It's not possible that GSX would automatically revert to a different AFCAD on its own. The only possible reason for this are:

- You (or another addon, like a Scenery Library utility) changed the order of the Scenery Areas, so now the one you want to use is on a lower layer than it should

OR

- The AFCAD itself has changed, so now it's not valid anymore, for all the reasons I already explained in my previous post

OR

- You renamed the AFCAD file and, in this case, GSX requires a "Restart and rebuild the airport cache" option from the Couatl menu to recognize the new name since, in order to speed up startup time, GSX only checks the *folder* last modification date (so it doesn't have to check each and every file), and that one doesn't change when you delete or rename a file inside a folder, that's why there's an option to force a cache rebuild.