Afcad path - Important?

[stiarol]

Hi
Just a quick question, that most likely has been answered before, but my searches didn't come up with an clear answer.

The afcad_path entry under the generalsection in the ini file is not always present on many of the profiles I've downloaded.
Some of them that got them are clearly pointing to the wrong location on my system. In an effort to go through all of them to correct this path I quickly realised that many of them does not have this entry.
What is the purpose of this entry, and why is some profiles missing it?
Is it necessary or does it depend on the type of scenery?

two examples:
ENGM for ORBX scenery
[general]
afcad_path = \\?\E:\MSFS\Community\orbx-airport-engm-oslo\scenery\Orbx\engm\placements.bgl

The above is pointing to a location that is not in use on my system.
placements.bgl is located at D:\MSFS Addons\ORBX\msfs\ENGM Oslo Gardermoen Airport\Community\orbx-airport-engm-oslo\scenery\Orbx\engm
However it seems to be working correct.

EHAM for FlyTampa
[general]
creator = Virtualstuff
scenario = FT AMS/SPL Version 1.09
disable_static_docks = 1
notes = Based on real life FlyTampa Amsterdam (SPL)

The above does not point to any loaction at all.

[stiarol]

Ok. Some more searching seems to have given me the answer I was looking for.

As per this https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,28402.msg185607.html#msg185607
and this https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,27417.msg190594.html#msg190594

As long as the SU12 Navdata API Enabled is checked, the afcad_patch section of the INI is ignored. In other words it can point to whatever it wants. GSX won't be bothered as it only looks up the ICAO at the start of the ini-file.

Forum mods. Do as see fit with this thread.

[virtuali]

GSX won't be bothered as it only looks up the ICAO at the start of the ini-file.

This is also explained in the manual, Page 89:

Navdata API and GSX Custom Profiles

Until now, GSX tied a custom airport profile to the .BGL which was in use when the profile was made. But since we don’t read the .BGL anymore, now the only thing that ties a custom .INI profile to a certain airport, is the ICAO code, that is the first letters of the .INI file name.