i think I have a workaround that I've been testing today and has worked well so far on Mac and Windows 7 - file symbolic/hard links.

In Windows 7 -
C:\ProgramData\Hero Lab\data\pathfinder>mklink /H "My Custom Userfile.user" "c:\Path\To\My Dropbox\Hero Lab Resources\My Custom Userfile.user"
Hardlink created for My Custom userfile.user <<===>> c:\Path\To\My Dropbox\Hero Lab Resources\My Custom Userfile.user

In Mac OS X Terminal -
mymacname:pathfinder username$ ln '/Users/username/Dropbox/Hero Lab Resources/My Custom Userfile.user' './My Custom Userfile.user'

I haven't confirmed the Mac one but have been told by Mac/Linux users that would work perfectly fine. Will report back if it doesn't. Windows 7 however is tested and works perfectly, saving to the .user file in my pathfinder data folder triggered a dropbox update to my other PCs. Enjoy!

Update: confirmed working on Mac too! Updated the instructions

I ninja'd you there Cuzza with the method :-)
worked fine on my computer too. Teamwork!

Glen

All paths really need to be user definable. I was very close to requesting a refund when I installed and specified custom install and discovered that even though I directed the install to my D:/program files (x86) directory, a C:/programdata directory was also created and utilized.

Why? Because I use a SSD drive for C:/ which contains OS and static application files only. For those unfamiliar with SSD's, they dramatically speed up reads for file access so applications/programs gain a significant boost. The downside is that they have a limited number of writes to the device. Hero Lab forces a directory onto the C:/ and writes every time the program is accessed. Every time I use Hero Lab, a few bits die.... And that makes me sad.

SSD's are becoming more common for laptops and gaming systems. Cloud data support for centralized storage would be a huge plus for anyone using a desktop/laptop combo. I'd really like to see this limitation changed.

Protip: The solution i posted above would work in your case as well. Just move the entire C:\ProgramData\Hero Lab folder to your non-SSD drive then create a symbolic link -
C:\ProgramData>mklink /d "Hero Lab" "D:\Data\Hero Lab"

From there you can even hardlink to Dropbox for your .user files as well.

Thank you Cuzza. The symlink to the directory as you outlined worked perfectly. I'm a much happier camper now. :)

It would be nicer to be able to user define locations for .hl, .user, .stock, images, exports, portfolios from within Hero Lab. But this will work just fine for the interim.

Thought I'd add two bits to this discussion. This is for windows users. There's a nice GUI tool to help create links.

http://code.google.com/p/symlinker

It works well and is free. Works in Vista, Win7, Win2008.

Kizan

While the Mac version of the instructions had been working for me back in March, as of right now it's broken. It appears that Hero Lab now deletes and recreates the .user file, which breaks any hard links to it. So now this workaround is no longer working.

Anyone else have any ideas for working around the lack of a configurable custom file location?

Hey Bobson, are you referring to files you have created yourself or other ones?

This is a file I've created myself, that I put all my house-rules, conversions, and so on in. I haven't tried it with the latest version yet.

This bit me again this week - I'd edited my CustomData.user file on my desktop, and the hardlink to dropbox was disconnected so it never got propagated over to my laptop. Has anyone managed to find another workaround?

This is version 4.1 of HL, and OSX 10.6 on the desktop.