Sketchup 2021 pro - cannot change template file location

I’ve installed Sketchup 2021 pro. Trying to change template file location under
Windows-> Preferences-> Files but only this option is gray
I’ve deleted the SharedPreferences.json file, Run Sketchup as Administrator but it does not help
Is there a way to change the path?
Thanks

As far as I know, it’s in a fixed location by design. There may be a hack to change it, but I don’t know of one, and it isn’t recommended.

As @john_mcclenahan indicated, that location is hard coded. You cannot edit the template location.

Save your template in your own folder. Then you simply open it. There’s no need to store your custom templates inside of SU or LO.

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Why is the file folder even shown on the preferences menu then?!
The whole point of templates in a professional office setting is to be able to share them from a central location in order to keep office standards.
Also, why are templates being treated any different than the other items on file location preferences list? Components, Styles, etc. etc.

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So you can find them if you want to access them and share them with other users. Like extensions, templates are not and should not be kept in a central location for all users.

You would think that users in a professional office setting could be trained to not screw stuff up but evidently that’s not possible. We’ve seen loads of cases over the years where network resources were wrecked for everyone when one user got in and made changes they shouldn’t have.

Because SketchUp needs to know where they are early in the startup sequence. It also prevents users from accidentally moving or removing them.

@DaveR I’m not sure you understand the purpose of an office standard template in a professional office. If everyone has there own locally stored template that they can edit, it is no longer a office standard template.
Allowing admin. permissions/read only to the network stored template is the better way to keep it from being wrecked.
This is being and has been done by many other software programs for decades.

I do understand. You can share the office standard templates with the other users in your office if you want but they will be accessed from their local drives not a network location.

Train them not to edit the template. Simple.

In a professional office, ordinary users do not have the right to change the templates. Files have the read-only attribute, moreover, they do not have the right to write to the templates folder. Apparently the cases you mentioned were not from a professional office. Moreover, there is such a thing as PDM

Furthermore, Layout allows you to change the template file location.
But we already knew that the level of inconsistency between SU and LO is epic. :crazy_face:

This makes the locked SU template file location the sole outlier of all the data (that would be used for office standards) in both SU and LO that you don’t have control over where it is stored.

All my templates are kept outside of the program. When I start a project, I don’t open SU or LO directly. I open the file (template). Surely a large firm has a main server where the template files can be stored.