My Experience Moving an Orbx Library Location

[Norvel Reeves]

I hope this is the right place for this.   It's kinda long.

 

I'm making this post is to share with you all what I did to change the location of an Orbx Library (e.g., an external-to-simulator location for Orbx products) in preparation for installing True Earth Northern California SD and other True Earth products that I've recently purchased for 30% off. I made this change because I want to get as much of my stuff, especially flight simulators, off of my "C:" (e.g., Operating System) disk as possible, after having had problems with Windows Update, and with a bad SSD.

 

Please note that I moved the library location twice; once off of an HDD to an SSD, "N:\Orbx Library", then from "N:\Orbx Library" to "N\:Orbx Library 1" because I wanted to create this post step-by-step for my own future reference.  This post only shows the "N:\Orbx Library" to "N\:Orbx Library 1" move.

 

This is not a request for support or for changes to Orbx, although I do note some, relatively minor, problems I had.  To be clear, the end result was that I was successful in changing the library location.

 

Here's what I did.   The numbered steps below were pretty much pasted, though modified, from the Orbx Central documentation.

 

1.  Go to Settings > Libraries.

 

2.  Note the directory of the library you’d like to move.

 

3.  Click the delete button next to the library you'd like to move. Please note that this will not delete the contents of a library (the actual installed products), it will only remove the reference to the library in Central and your simulators.

 

4.  Close Central by right-clicking on the Central icon in the system tray (usually located in the bottom right corner of the Windows desktop), and selecting “quit”, or if you have chosen not to have Central minimize to the system tray, simply exit by closing the Central window (by clicking the 'X' in the top right hand corner of the window).

 

5.  Create a new and empty directory in the new location you have chosen for the library.

 

6.  Start Central again.

 

7.  Go to Settings > Libraries.

 

8.  Press ‘Create New Library’.  The 'Create Library' dialog will appear, with the 'Library Name' set to 'My Library' and the 'Library Path' set to 'C:\Users\<username>.Orbx Library', where, '<username>' is the name of the user you are running Windows under.

 

9.  In the 'Library Name' text box, enter the name you would like to give to the new library.

 

Note: It's not clear what the 'Library Name' field is used for and what, if any, considerations apply when selecting a name.

 

10. Note that you cannot enter text directly into the 'Library Path' text box. To select the new library location, you must press the 'Change' button and navigate to and select the new and empty directory you have created for your new library, after which the path to the new directory will appear in the 'Library Path' text box.

 

11. Press ‘Save’.

 

12. Move the files from your original library into the new location. DO NOT amend the file structure. This step may take a while depending on your disk speed.

 

Note:  It was unclear to me what was meant by, "DO NOT amend the file structure", in the Orbx documentation.  I assumed that this meant move only the directories and files (I didn't have any files, only a single directory for XP 11) immediately below the top-level directory of the original library.  So, I had an original library in 'N:\Orbx Library' with only a single sub-directory, 'xp11'.  I created a new, empty directory, 'N:\Orbx Library 1' . I moved only the 'xp11' directory from the original library, 'N:\Orbx Library', to the new library, 'N:\Orbx Library 1', so that the new library consisted of, 'N:\Orbx Library 1\xp11'.  To be clear, the original file structure was 'N:\Orbx Library\xp11', while the new file structure was, 'N:\Orbx Library 1\xp11'.

 

After doing all the above steps, up to and including step 12, I was tempted to exit Central, but the Central documentation does not say to do this, so I didn't.  Instead, I went directly to the 'My Products' window in Central. I was already in the 'X-Plane' section, by which I mean that the product in the dropdown at the top right of the window was 'X-Plane 11'.  The only X-Plane 11 products that I had installed at the time were the free, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo', and, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport'.  These were both showing not installed, by which I mean that the circles to the right of the product names did not have green check marks. The same was true for 'Orbx Libraries'. As noted earlier, these are the only products I had which used the 'libraries' function of Central.  All of these products had been installed and used before I completed the above steps.  In addition, the 'SAM Scenery Animation Manager' product, which unless I am mistaken, does NOT use the 'libraries' function, was showing INSTALLED, by which I mean that the circle to the right of the product name did, in fact, have a green check mark even though I had previously uninstalled it.  I then used the dropdown to go to the sections for other simulators that I have, namely FSX/SE and Prepar3d V3, and found that all the products that I had installed were still showing installed (green checked).

 

I then used the dropdown to go back to the 'X-Plane 11' section and found that the, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo', the, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport', and, 'Orbx Libraries', were now showing installed (green checked).  I then quit from Central (BTW I don't use the minimize to system tray option) and started up X-Plane 11, first at EGHI in the Southampton (that is, the 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo') region, then at 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport' and, in both cases, immediately saw that I was getting default, not Orbx, scenery.  Exiting from X-Plane 11 and looking at 'scenery_packs.ini',  in the X-Plane 11 'Custom Scenery' directory, I found that neither, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo' , nor, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport' , were included in that file.  Also in the X-Plane 11, 'Custom Scenery', directory, I found that the shortcuts (symbolic links) for, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo' , and, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport', were still pointing to, 'N:\Orbx Libraries'; that is, to the original (and now empty) library.

 

(BTW, I also checked my other simulators that don't use the library function and, as expected, they seemed fine.)

 

Next, I started up Central again and did 'Verify files' on, and in this order, 'Orbx Libraries', 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo', and, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport'.  All completed without problem.  I then checked the X-Plane 11, 'Custom Scenery', directory, and found that the shortcuts (symbolic links) for, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo', and, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport', were now pointing to, 'N:\Orbx Libraries 1'; that is, to the new (and now populated) library.  I then quit from Central and again started up X-Plane 11 first at EGHI in the Southampton (that is, the, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo') region, then at, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport', and, in both cases, immediately saw that I was getting Orbx, scenery. I then exited from X-Plane 11 and looking at, 'scenery_packs.ini', in the X-Plane 11, 'Custom Scenery', directory, I found that both, 'True Earth Great Britain South Demo', and, 'LFLJ Courchevel Airport', were included in that file.

 

So, now I have, as far as I can tell, successfully moved from using, 'N:\Orbx Libraries', to using 'N:\Orbx Libraries 1', but to accomplish it, I had to take some additional steps that are not explicitly laid out in the Orbx Central documentation.

 

My next task was to use Central to install my recently purchased True Earth Northern California SD, into the new 'N:\Orbx Libraries 1' location.  The install seems to have worked.  True Earth Northern California SD scenery showed up in X-Plane 11.  I intend to make another post about that effort, including some questions I have about it.

 

Of course, I might have done something wrong.  If you see it, please don't hesitate to help me out!

 

That is all, for now.

 

Norvel