In a multi-user environment, it is a good practice to share the templates, the sheet formats, the Weldment Profiles, etc… into a network drive. This way, all the users have the same configuration and if something is modified, the change will be immediatly available to everyone. Having things homogeneous improves quality, readability, things are easier to find.

Prerequisite

• You need a shared folder on a network drive that you can call “Configuration” for example. Then you create some sub-folders named after the different templates and configurations that you want to share. Inside those sub-folders, just drop the necessary files:

First step

• You first have to define the location of each folder containing configuration files or templates. In SolidWorks, go to System Options, and then File Locations:

• Click the drop-down menu Show folders for and select one that is present in the shared location. It is not necessary to have the sub-folders name matching exactly the names in the drop-down menu but that makes things clearer. Delete the existing file locations pointing to your SolidWorks installation directory and select Add… and browse to the matching sub-folder in your shared folder.

• Repeat the operation until all the sub-folders in the shared location have been linked. If you are asked to make the changes to your search paths you can say yes.

For the case of the Material Database, please read the Shared Material Database article. In this case, you cannot delete the existing paths but it does not mater as the default Material Databases cannot be edited so no risk of having materials with the same name but different properties. You will get something like this with that nice bugged sentence in the middle:

Next step

• Then, you have to change the Default Templates so you don’t have to select it each time you create a component. In System Options, go to Default Templates.

•   Click on “…” and make sure that each of the tree types of files points to its respective template in the shared folder. It should send you directly to the shared folder as you already set the default location for Document Templates. Just click on the file to link it.

Last step

• You have to change the Hole Wizard and Toolbox folder so if someone adds a new length of screw, you will see it too. In System Options, go to Hole Wizard/Toolbox.

• Click on “…” and browse to the shared location where the Toolbox has been installed. If you are installing a new version of SolidWorks, make sure you point it to this shared folder so the shared Toolbox is updated to the new version as the same time.

To avoid having to do this on each client, you can export the proper SolidWorks Settings with the right file locations and then import it on the client to setup everything directly!