Perils of Sharing System Options (where's my journal file)

The Copy Settings Wizard is a very handy tool. Personally, I love the ability to deploy system settings company wide using the .sldreg file in conjunction with an admin. image.  Others just love the ability to share their settings with another user or backup their settings in case of a machine change or registry corruption.

Recently, however, an inconvenience has reared its head.  After sharing settings from one user to another the receiving user gets an annoying message saying that they cannot create a journal file.  Now this doesn't keep anyone from modeling, it's just an annoyance.  But it occurs every time they launch SolidWorks and it's totally unnecessary.  It is also only a problem if the users do not have admin. rights. 

The reason that this occurs is that the location where SolidWorks automatically puts journal files is determined when the software is installed as "C:\Documents and settings\<username>\Application Data\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008".  Once this location has been written to the registry it stays there and is transported with the registry everywhere it goes.  So if the user "Administrator" installs the software and then copies his settings to share with other users, the other users journal files will be aimed at "C:\Documents and settings\Administrator\Application Data\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008."  In most cases the user will not have permissions to read or write to that directory and the errors will then occur.

Work around (1)

This one is easy.  But remember, torquing around with your registry is dangerous, so watch out!

First use the Copy settings wizard to create the .sldreg file to be shared.

Use notepad to edit the file (It's actually a text file that is easily edited)

Using the Find feature in the Edit menu of Notepad search for the phrase "SolidWorks Journal Folders".

Delete this entire line from the file and then save.

When the user reads the file in now this line will either remain the same as his current settings or be recreated from scratch to point to "C:\Documents and settings\<username>\Application Data\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008" if he does not have SolidWorks registry settings yet.

Work around (2)

This one is easy as well.  But remember, torquing around with your registry is still dangerous, so keep watching out!

First use the Copy settings wizard to create the .sldreg file to be shared.

Use notepad to edit the file.

Using the Find feature in the Edit menu of Notepad search for the phrase "SolidWorks Journal Folders".

Change the path that is already called out in the file to another location like "C:\temp".  Just make sure it is a location that all users have permissions to read and write to.

When the user reads the file in now this line points to "C:\Temp."  This can make it so that these files are consistently in the same place every time on every machine.  Don't forget to go back to the original machine and change the location there as well.

Either work around will get the messages to go away.  It's just a matter of whether or not you want to go with the SolidWorks default locations for these files.  There is no other way to change the location of the journal files other than editing the registry.

Also, when working with administrative images many CAD Admins. will push out a .sldreg file with the image.  One of these work arounds should be employed before the software is deployed to clients.

Adrian Fanjoy

Technincal Services Manager

Computer Aided Technology