We've all been in a situation where we needed to get work done away from the office before without access to your CAD workstation and important files.  Emergencies happen and can catch you by surprise without your laptop or without your valuable files. I am here to share a method I have found to be a great solution to manage your SolidWorks files and templates to have them be accessible anywhere you may be.

Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/tour) is a free program that syncs your files from your PC to a web server and allows user(s) access to those files from any PC with internet access.  There are many competitors in this ever crowded "cloud" market, so pick the program that best suits your needs.  For simplicity's sake, we will focus on the DropBox program in this article which can be downloaded here:    https://www.dropbox.com/downloading

DropBox is a small program that creates a "shared" folder on your PC or mobile device.  The magic behind it is that the files are accessible to programs and function just like they were in a normal folder on your hard drive.  The DropBox program monitors this folder location and automatically uploads any changes to its servers AND any other users/PCs that you have invited to this folder share.  You start out with about 2.5GB worth of free space that increases with every new user you invite granting you additional storage space.  I am up to 12GB of free cloud storage myself without spending a dime.

So now that you have a little knowledge of DropBox, we need to use it to help us with SolidWorks.  I mainly use DropBox to store my SolidWorks template and Design Library files.  I started doing this after being "stranded" on my home PC without many of the templates, shortcuts, macros, user interface, etc that I rely on from my work PC.  Now, all of my SolidWorks "File Locations" are located in the DropBox.  If I have to work at home, my work PC crashes, or if a co-worker needs access to something and I am not in the office to send it to them, DropBox is there to share, backup, and sync these files with any device or user that I see fit.  You also don't have to worry about slow network access to these files as they still function like local files on your hard drive (because they are).  Think of it as a shared network drive without having to physically attach to the network.  I also use it to share large design files with customers, but it's uses are only as limited as your imagination.

The above image displays my DropBox Location showing my SolidWorks template files.  This is shared across my 2 PCs, smart phone, 2 remote engineer contractors I work with, and another employee.  This guarantees we are working off the same templates no matter where we are.

 Disclaimer:
You can also use it to store your design files, but just be cautious of your companies IP policies due to the lack of "iron clad" security of these files.  These files could be accessed by unauthorized users in case of a security breach.  There is also no "check-in / checkout" functionality in Dropbox, so avoid simultaneous users accessing the same file.