Well, I do have something similar already in the macro which looks like your code, using "params_tpccombi.root" instead of "simparams.root". So there must be more to it.
TString sysFile = gSystem->Getenv("VMCWORKDIR");
TString allDigiFile = sysFile+"/macro/params/all.par";
TString parFile = Directory+"params_tpccombi.root";
FairRunAna *fRun= new FairRunAna();
FairRuntimeDb* rtdb = fRun->GetRuntimeDb();
FairParRootFileIo* parInput1 = new FairParRootFileIo();
parInput1->open(parFile.Data());
rtdb->setFirstInput(parInput1);
FairParAsciiFileIo* parIo1 = new FairParAsciiFileIo();
parIo1->open(allDigiFile.Data(),"in");
PndGeoHandling* geoH = PndGeoHandling::Instance();