43.
Load Scenery Library¶
This dialog allows loading of the scenery library data from all
supported flight simulators into the Little Navmap internal database.
The scenery library to load can be selected in the Simulator:
drop
down box.
The dialog shows information about the currently selected database including the number of loaded airports, database version and more.
FSX and Prepar3D: The base path and the scenery.cfg
path will be
shown in two text edit fields for the currently selected simulator.
These fields are populated automatically, but can be changed to any
other valid location. All values are saved individually for each flight
simulator type.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020: The base path of the MSFS installation and its
directories Community
and Official
is detected automatically. You can change the path manually if needed.
X-Plane: The base path of the first X-Plane installation is
added. Select the base path manually if you like to read the scenery
library of another X-Plane installation. On Windows that can be a path
like C:\Simulators\X-Plane 11
, the executable being
C:\Simulators\X-Plane 11\X-Plane.exe
.
Loading a scenery library can take from 2 to 10 minutes depending on
your setup and amount of scenery add-ons. You can speed this up by
excluding directories containing neither airport nor navigation data in
the Options
dialog on the Scenery Library Database tab.
For FSX and Prepar3D, all airports that are not located in the default
Scenery
directory of FSX/P3D are considered to be add-on airports.
For X-Plane, all airports located in the Custom Scenery
directory of
X-Plane are considered to be add-on airports. An exception is ...\X-Plane 11\Custom Scenery\Global Airports\Earth nav data\apt.dat
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020: All airports located in the Community
directory and the Official\OneStore
or Official\Steam
are considered to be add-on airports.
Exceptions are fs-base
and fs-base-nav
.
Add-on airports are highlighted on the map with a yellow ring which can be disabled in the options dialog on page Map Display.
Using emphasized (bold and underlined) text highlights add-on airports in the search result table, flight plan table, information windows and map tooltips.
If an add-on only corrects airport elevations or navigation data, it
might be undesirable to display the updated airports as add-on airports
on the map. You can exclude directories populated by this add-on from
the add-on recognition in the Options
dialog on the
page Scenery Library Database.
If you cancel the loading process or if the loading process fails, the previous scenery library database is restored immediately.
The menu Scenery Library
-> Flight Simulators is synchronized
with the simulator selection in the dialog. Once a database is
successfully loaded, the display, flight plan and search switch
instantaneously to the newly loaded simulator data.
Note
The final number of airports, navaids and other objects shown
in the Load Scenery Library
dialog are lower than the counts shown
in the progress dialog. After the data has been loaded, a
separate process removes duplicates and deletes stock airports that were
replaced by add-ons.
FSX or P3D only: The program tries to find the base paths and
Scenery.cfg
files automatically. The typical locations of the
Scenery.cfg
for Windows 7/8/10 are:
- Flight Simulator X:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\Scenery.cfg
- Flight Simulator - Steam Edition:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE\Scenery.cfg
- Prepar3D v2:
C:\Users\YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\Scenery.cfg
- Prepar3D v3:
C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\Scenery.cfg
- Prepar3D v4:
C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Scenery.cfg
An error dialog is shown after loading, if any files could not be read or directories were not found. In this case you should check if the airports of the affected sceneries display correctly and show the correct information. The error dialog allows copy and paste of formatted text which is useful for error reporting.
The Load Scenery Library
dialog shows the last time of loading
(Last Update:
), the program and the database version. Major database
version differences indicate incompatible databases. The program will
ask if the incompatible databases can be erased on startup before the
scenery database can be reloaded. Minor database differences indicate
compatible changes where a reload is recommended but not required.
Warning
Close Little Navmap when updating, copying or replacing its databases manually or using other programs. Little Navmap might crash or show wrong data otherwise.
43.3. Load Scenery Library Options¶
Simulator
: Select the simulator to load, show database statistics in the label above.Reset Paths
: Reset all paths back to default values.Flight Simulator Base Path
andSelect ...
: The path to the base directory of the selected flight simulator. This usually the directory containing theFSX.exe
orPrepar3D.exe
. This is the base for all relative paths found in thescenery.cfg
file.Scenery Configuration File
andSelect ...
(only FSX and P3D): The filescenery.cfg
of the simulator. You can also create copies of the original file, modify them by removing or adding sceneries and select them here for loading.Read inactive Scenery Entries
: This will read all scenery entries, also the inactive/disabled ones. This is helpful if you use a tool to disable scenery before flying but still want to see all add-on sceneries in Little Navmap without reloading. This applies to the FSX/P3Dscenery.cfg
as well as X-Plane’sscenery_packs.ini
which both allow to disable scenery entries.Read Prepar3D add-on.xml packages
(only P3D v3 and v4): If enabled, reads P3D v4 or v3add-on.xml
packages. These are read from sub directories ofC:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files\Add-ons
andC:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons
.Load
: Starts the database loading process. You can stop the loading process at any time and the previous database is restored. The dialog is closed and the program will switch to show the loaded database once it is successfully loaded.Close
: Keep all settings and changes in the dialog and close it without loading anything.
Note
Note regarding Read inactive Scenery Entries
and X-Plane:
You either have to enable this option or start X-Plane after adding an
airport. X-Plane will update the scenery_packs.ini
when
starting. Otherwise your new scenery will not appear in Little
Navmap.

Load Scenery Dialog. Scenery data is already loaded for FSX.

Progress dialog shown while loading the scenery library into Little Navmap’s internal database.
43.4. Magnetic Declination¶
Little Navmap reads the magnetic declination from different sources or calculates it using the world magnetic model (WMM) depending on simulator and navaid.
The data is updated when loading the scenery library and is also stored in the scenery library database for each simulator.
See chapter Magnetic Declination for information how this impacts flight plans.
43.4.1. FSX, Prepar3D and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020¶
The magnetic declination (or variation) used to calculate the magnetic
course is taken from the magdec.bgl
file in the scenery database of
FSX or Prepar3D.
Updates for this file are available here: FSX/P3D Navaids update.
Little Navmap falls back to the world magnetic model if the file
magdec.bgl
is not available for some reason.
43.4.2. X-Plane¶
The magnetic declination values for X-Plane (airports and all navaids except VORs) are calculated using the world magnetic model based on the real current year and month. This is calculated while loading the scenery library and saved in X-Plane scenery library database.
VOR stations come with their own declination values which might differ from the calculated declination values in their environment as mentioned above.