No Buildings with PMDG **SOLVED**

[Hal]

At first I thought it was only PMDG, but now it's pretty much any plane.

Hal

[virtuali]

I'm sorry, but I just cannot replicate it. I tested it now, and I can restart FSX multiple times, with no issues, waiting less than 30 seconds between each startup.

Do you still have the Couatl.exe running in the Task manager after closing the sim for the first time ? If yes, terminate it with the task manager. Of course, is not normal you have to do this, but it's possible an unknown conflict with another addon is preventing the program from terminating.

And of course, the usual suggestion of adding the whole Addon Manager to the antivirus exclusions is always valid so, if you haven't done it yet, do it please.

[Hal]

Another thing that is happening in all this is the scenery library is losing its connection to the airport.  What I mean by that is the scenery library will contain say, PHNL with a path of c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL. Then when I exit FSX and fire it up again I will get the error message: "Scenery.cfg file error. Local scenery directory c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL\scenery area 364 not found."  This, even though I have not touched the scenery library entries.

I appreciate you taking so much time with this.  Do you think a total reinstall would help? Would I need to download the latest installers for all 15 airports?

Hal

[virtuali]

What I mean by that is the scenery library will contain say, PHNL with a path of c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL. Then when I exit FSX and fire it up again I will get the error message: "Scenery.cfg file error. Local scenery directory c:\FSX\fsdreamteam\addon manager\fsdreamteam\PHNL\scenery area 364 not found."  This, even though I have not touched the scenery library entries.

When I told you it would be best if you installed outside the sim, you said you were going to do it. If you did that, our installed would have removed the old line (from when you installed inside the sim), and replace it with the one you selected outside the sim.

So, why you still have the old path in the Scenery Library, the one inside the sim which seems to be related to your previous installation ?

Since our installer surely removed it, could be you use one of those dangerous utilities that change the scenery library at each flight ? If yes, it's clear what's happening: when an old scenery.cfg is being restored and contains the path for the old installation, the scenery won't work on the next flight.

[Hal]

I know you're as weary of this as I am, but here goes.  I had not yet reinstalled the airports, I was holding that out as the last alternative. I have now done that.  I uninstalled everything: airports, couatl, addon manager. I did a registry cleanup. I then installed (on a remote hard drive) KIAH which I had downloaded yesterday. Alas, same problem. Buildings are there on first loading, not there on a second loading after a Windows restart. Here's the funny thing. When I looked at the freashly installed addon manager, it still recognized the airports I had uninstalled. The reading was "Active but not installed in the scenery library". Was some obscure component not uninstalled? Is that part of the problem. (and yes I have the addon manager on the virus exclusions).

hal

[virtuali]

When I looked at the freashly installed addon manager, it still recognized the airports I had uninstalled. The reading was "Active but not installed in the scenery library". Was some obscure component not uninstalled? Is that part of the problem. (and yes I have the addon manager on the virus exclusions).

This is the only thing normal in your description which is supposed to happen. The Addon Manager is just telling the scenery is active on your system (active = not in Trial), but it's not installed, which is exactly what you are supposed to see when the scenery is uninstalled.

For the obvious reason that, we don't touch the activation, if you just want to uninstall/reinstall the scenery on the same PC for any reason. The only time you need a reactivation, is when you change major hardware components, or reinstall Windows from scratch.

[Hal]

Let me ask one more question. If I have uninstalled and deleted every component of FSDT and then did a fresh install, how does the Addon manager "know" I once had these airports on my system.  Shouldn't it be the same as if I was a brand knew customer who had never had these airports? I guess I was hoping that if I could get to the point of starting over as a new customer the problem might be solved. Are there some components I failed to delete?

Hal

[virtuali]

If I have uninstalled and deleted every component of FSDT and then did a fresh install, how does the Addon manager "know" I once had these airports on my system. 

By checking the scenery library, of course. That's why, after one of you later messages about the error of the missing areas, I said to check who's changing the scenery.cfg, because our Uninstaller SURELY removes it when it's being run so, if you had that error, either your scenery.cfg has an issue, or something is changing it, perhaps reverting to a previous version.

Shouldn't it be the same as if I was a brand knew customer who had never had these airports?

If you have a scenery.cfg that resurfaces because some other program is restoring it, you will have this issue until you act on *that* one. Again, I'm basing this following your reports, especially the one about the missing area in the scenery.cfg. Do you still have it ?

Are there some components I failed to delete?

You are not supposed to delete anything. The uninstallers will do it. If you reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" when Uninstalling, it will clean everything related to FSDT, except the activation, which is clearly not the issue here.

[Hal]

I guess I don't know what else to do. I can uninstall and reinstall every time I want to use an airport and get my one-shot at it I suppose. I appreciate your taking all this time to try and help me (you're the best!). I have been focusing on the buildings, but I now realize that not even the runways are present, only their photo image. By the way, does the fact that if you click on "restart couatl" or "restart couatl and rebuild airport cache" on the Addon menu and nothing happens indicate something? I will continue to tinker with this. I wish I understood a little more of how couatl works.

Hal

[cmpbllsjc]

When I told you it would be best if you installed outside the sim, you said you were going to do it. If you did that, our installed would have removed the old line (from when you installed inside the sim), and replace it with the one you selected outside the sim.

Umberto, I didn’t know that the FSX versions were now installed outside the sim rather than in the root FSX folder. I thought outside the sim was only for P3D?

[Hal]

UPDATE: OK, what is actually happening is that after the initial loading after a reinstall the couatl.exe file becomes "dead" and does not work. For example after a reinstall of say, CYVR when I first open FSX and go to CYVR it loads the scenery normally. During the first session I can also click on "restart couatl and rebuld airport cache" and it works. Couatl will rebuild the airport as many times as I click on it.  Once I exit FSX however, and come back to the airport a second time couatl is dead and will not work.

Hal

[virtuali]

Umberto, I didn’t know that the FSX versions were now installed outside the sim rather than in the root FSX folder. I thought outside the sim was only for P3D?

We always install outside the sim now, even on FSX, and one of the advantages of doing that, is that we have a single shared folder, instead of many duplicate fsdreamteam folders as it used to be, when each install installed inside its own sim.

It's just that in P3D, the whole process is more reliable, since there's no shared DLL/EXE.XML files, so users or other addons messing with it, won't affect ours, and it's possible to uninstall the sim entirely without having to reinstall our addons, something that is still not possible with FSX, since some files (Effects, for example), will still go into the FSX folder, and the Simobjectpaths lines, which are not required by P3D, will be lost if the user reset the FSX.CFG file.

So, it's the same install, just much more reliable and convenient under P3D.

[virtuali]

Once I exit FSX however, and come back to the airport a second time couatl is dead and will not work.

Do you mean you have the Couatl.exe stuck from the previous session ? That's why I told you to check for this in my previous post:

"Do you still have the Couatl.exe running in the Task manager after closing the sim for the first time ? If yes, terminate it with the task manager. Of course, is not normal you have to do this, but it's possible an unknown conflict with another addon is preventing the program from terminating."

[Hal]

No couatl is not stuck in that sense.  I check task manager and it is not running. I don't know if this tells you anything, but I get the message "airport regeneration completed in X seconds" when I bring up an FSDT airport for the first time after a fresh reinstall. But when I exit FSX (and make sure couatl is not running!) and then bring up FSX again and go to the FSDT airport I never get the message about airport regeneration.

Hal

[Hal]

Just to add to my last reply. I made sure that couatl was not running on the task manager. I then brought up FSX and I watched the task manager (again, this is a second call up after a reinstall, it always works on the first call up after a reinstall). FSX came up and I selected PHNL as my airport. I continued to watch the task manager as FSX loaded  PHNL. Finally the airport was loaded and as always on a second(or third ,etc) loading there were no buildings. I watched task manager during the entire process and couatl never ran.  So the bottom line seems to be that when I reinstall an FSDT airport, the first time I load the airport after the reinstall, everything works normally and couatl runs and buildings are loaded. On any second or subsequent attempt to load an FSDT airport (after signing out and back on FSX) couatl never runs and so no buildings are loaded. What could be preventing couatl from running on subsequent loadings? You would think that if it were a permissions issue it would NEVER run, but it does run on the first loading after a fresh reinstall.

Hal