Data Shortcuts Folder

Data shortcuts can be a big pain in the butt if things are change on you. Maybe someone started the project on the wrong hard drive and now you have to move it to the correct location. There is a way to help alleviate the issue and it is a little known variable named DSSYSVAR. This variable allows you to set the data shortcuts folder path with this windows environment variable. So if all of your data shortcuts are on the D:\Projects in one office and E:\OnGoing in another office you can use the DSSYSVAR to help not having to repath everything, all you need to do is change the DSSYSVAR to get it to work correctly.

The hard part is to create a user interface that will easily change the values. There is a Windows way to set the environmental variables. The first step is to create the variable. To do this first go into Windows Control Panel and type Environment Variables in the search box.

Then press the Edit the System Environment Variables option. Then go to the Advanced Tab, User Variables Button, Press the New Button for System Variables and then change enter in DSSYSVAR as the name and then the value you want it to point to.

If one is already created you will want to select the variable and then press Edit instead.

Now in Civil 3D you won’t see a change. If you look in the XML file of the data shortcut you will find that path is now saved using the DSSysVar.