Lots of creators tells you to edit the afcad_path to your own path, because they didn't read the manual, which clearly says it's NOT required, for the precise reason to ease sharing. This is what the manual says about it when sharing of profiles is explained, Page 52:
The name of the .BGL used to customize the scenery is listed in the [GENERAL] section of the GSX .INI profile. It will include the complete path valid for your system but, don’t worry, there’s no need to edit it out before sharing your work, since GSX will only use the .BGL filename, and will ignore the full path altogether, it has been designed like this exactly to facilitate sharing of GSX .INI profiles without worrying about different paths. As long the currently active .BGL matches the name referenced in the .INI file, the .INI will be loaded by GSX, no matter the path.
This is how GSX always worked by default, which means the SU10 Navdata API option is Disabled. It has been like this since FSX, nothing has changed. The only thing that has changed, perhaps, is that after I keep repeating this, finally someone must have realized how it works, and editing is not required, but it's nothing we changed, it's how GSX worked for years.
When the SU10 Navdata API option in Enabled, GSX won't even read ANY .BGL to begin with, so the
whole afcad_path line is completely ignored, not just the path. In this case, only the first part of the name of the .INI itself ( the ICAO, before the dash ) matters, so it will be your responsibility to be sure:
- You only have ONE profile for a given airport.
- The profile is correct for the scenery you have installed.
This because, when the SU10 Navdata API option is Enabled, GSX is no longer able to associate a profile to the loaded BGL because...there's no "loaded .BGL" anymore, GSX will take the airport data directly from Simconnect, without any knowledge about which .BGL contains it.
Another effect of using the SU10 Navdata API option, is that airport profiles will ONLY work from GSX profiles folder:
%APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX\MSFS
If you have a custom profile made by the scenery developer himself, located in the scenery package in the Community folder, it won't be used by GSX when the SU10 Navdata API option is Enabled, because GSX won't even read the Community in that case: it doesn't have to, because the simulator itself will provide with the airport data, so the whole scan of the Community folders for scenery files, which lead to the creation of the airport cache, is no longer done, which of course simplifies the program, make it faster and more reliable to run, since any possible issue related to reading .BGL or accessing the Community folder is completely bypassed.
The side effect of this, is if you have a 3rd party scenery that came with its own GSX .INI file in its own package, it MUST be manually copied in %APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX\MSFS, because when the SU10 Navdata API option is Enabled, it's the ONLY place GSX will read custom profiles from.
This also fully explained in the Manual, where the SU10 Navdata option is explained, at Page 83.