• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

P3D v4 Simple Airport Scanner 1.70 Beta

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
OK - I have updated the installation for SAS hopefully yo fix the problem for users with just P3D v4 installed. Please re-download using the link in the first post. This now contains the update. It should report itself as version 1.08
 
Messages
5
Country
us-nevada
Looks good, Jon. Question though. The first post still says to install the Beta in a separate folder. So I had two separate installs for SAS...one for P3Dv4 and one for P3Dv3. The 1.08 Beta now allows the user to select the locations for multiple flight sim locations, and switch between them when using SAS. So, can I just have ONE folder for SAS now? If yes, I'll go delete my "extra" P3Dv3 SAS folder now.

Also, re my earlier post about there not seeming to be anything wrong with the code. I wasn't implying it was solely a "user error" issue. I just wanted to post that the original SAS update for P3Dv4 DID work fine for me, so there were PROBABLY some other issues involved, like individual user multiple sim installation configurations, etc. I was just offering another observation, that it seemed to work fine for some users, yet not for others. That can help the developer track down where the real issue may be. Never a dull moment in software programming. :banghead:
 
Messages
5
Country
us-nevada
Gotta ask one more question, Jon.

The new SAS isn't seeing any airports installed using the "new" XML addon method "recommended" by LM. For instance, I recently used the new FS DreamTeam and FlightBeam P3dV4 installers for their airports. They get added to P3Dv4 (and will also CHANGE your P3Dv3 installs) to the XML install method. When addons get added this way, they do NOT create an entry into the sim's Scenery.cfg file (you also can't use the sim's Scenery Library GUI to do anything with them, but that's another story).

I'm assuming the SAS is looking at the sim's Scenery.cfg file to find the airport BGL files? If yes, it will never list any airport BGL's for any airport addons added to the sim using the "new" XML method. None of my FS DreamTeam or FlightBeam installed airports using the XML method are listed in SAS after running SAS.

Is this something that can be "fixed" so all airports installed, regardless of the method, will be "found" by SAS? Or are we doomed by the new XML installation method now? :banghead:
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
You are correct - SAS looks into the scenery.cfg file. That actually stores only folders. I haven't looked at the new install method but I assume the bgl files end up in a real folder somewhere. Can you specify that folder or find it?
 
Messages
6
Country
switzerland
Now it works! It detects P3D V4 with the new version, thank you!
But right, now with the new files structure, it doesn't find the add-on airport not mentioned in this scenery.cfg.
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
But right, now with the new files structure, it doesn't find the add-on airport not mentioned in this scenery.cfg.

This is on the list - I am not sure when I will be able to get to it since I have other (non FS) commitments to deal with. Hopefully only a few days.
 
Messages
5
Country
us-nevada
You are correct - SAS looks into the scenery.cfg file. That actually stores only folders. I haven't looked at the new install method but I assume the bgl files end up in a real folder somewhere. Can you specify that folder or find it?

The XML install method creates a separate "XML Only" folder for each addon, and places it in a default folder location under "Documents\Prepar3d v3 Add-ons" (for P3Dv3) or "Documents\Prepar3d v4 Add-ons" for P3Dv4. THIS addon folder contains ONLY an XML file relating to the addon, with the information about where the "real" addon folder is located with all the files for the addon. For instance, my FS DreamTeam KLAS airport installed using the new installers that "comply" with LM's XML addon recommendation create this folder structure for the XML file location:

Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\FsDreamTeam KLAS (or) Documents\Prepar3D v3 Add-ons\FsDreamTeam KLAS (if installed in P3Dv3)

Inside the folder is an XML file (my example shown below), which contains the path entries for the REAL folder where the installer put the addon folder (real folder location may or may not be determined by where the developer wants to put it, or name it, or whatever...some installers don't give the end-user any choice where to put it. But it WILL be "outside" of the main simulator folder):

<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>FsDreamTeam KLAS</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>FsDreamTeam Las Vegas McCarran International Airport scenery</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>
<Name>FsDreamTeam Las Vegas McCarran</Name>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>E:\0000 - P3D Addons\Addon Manager\FsDreamTeam\KLAS\Scenery</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Texture</Category>
<Path>E:\0000 - P3D Addons\Addon Manager\FsDreamTeam\KLAS\Texture</Path>
<Type>GLOBAL</Type>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

Using the above method, no entry is made in the Scenery.CFG file for the flight sim, and SAS will never know the airport exists.

I'm assuming SAS would have to be re-coded to look at BOTH the Scenery.CFG file AND the entire list of XML addon folders (to read all the XML's in them to find THOSE airports)? Yuck! :confused:
 
Last edited:

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
Hmm - yes SAS (and the ADE File Priority Analyzer) would need to check both. What I don't see and need to understand is the issue of Priority. Earlier versions loaded in the order provided by the scenery.cfg file and then alpha order of file names. I guess I have some reading to do.

This isn't likely to be a trivial change
 
Messages
244
Country
england
Pete Dowson had a similar problem with his MakeRunways utility. I believe he got around the problem by using Lorbi-si's addon manager to create a scenery list and then MakeRunways reads that. May be worth having a read of the docs that come with MakeRunways. Of course that does rely on a 3rd party app which isn't ideal.
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
Thanks Dave. I will look into it as soon as I have some time
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
Sorry David

I have been buried under other (non FS related) work. Hopefully I will come up for air soon
 
Messages
133
Country
switzerland
Pete Dowson had a similar problem with his MakeRunways utility. I believe he got around the problem by using Lorbi-si's addon manager to create a scenery list and then MakeRunways reads that. May be worth having a read of the docs that come with MakeRunways. Of course that does rely on a 3rd party app which isn't ideal.

Hi
And while running MakeRunways with the Lorbi-si addon manager installed, it creates a file called MakeRwys_Scenery.cfg, which is in the p3d4 root directory. I just configured simple airport scanner with this MakeRwys_Scenery.cfg instead of the default scenery.cfg. It searches longer, as with scenery.cfg It also shows correct paths from add-on.xml configured addons. It works that way. Hope that helps you guys. I'm really glad having this tool. There are so many problems because of double ADE files, mostly from Mytraffic\scenery.

Regards

Dan

P.S. With the latest MakeRunways.exe you need to use afterwards the tool LorbySceneryExport.exe (I think it came with Lorby Addon). This creates the LorbyScenery.cfg, which can then be analyzed by SimpleAirportScanner.
 
Last edited:
Messages
2
Country
ca-quebec
Hi There,
I tried to use SAS 1.70 for my P3D V4 and I get this error:

Failed: C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\scenery.cfg is not a scenery.cfg file
Failed: TaxipointIndexError
ScruffyDuck.General.Exceptions.OperationFailedException: File is not a scenery.cfg file
at ScruffyDuck.Flightsim.Scenery.PersistSceneryConfigRepository.ProcessTheFile(IFileWrap pFileManager, String pFileName)
at ScruffyDuck.Flightsim.Scenery.PersistSceneryConfigRepository.LoadRepository()

The P3D run and no problem with the scenery.cfg, I can add scenery, I use Scenery config editor to add scenery.
Any help would me much appreciated
Thanks
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
SAS does not currently support P3D v4
 
Top