Origin offers a Group Folder feature that allows one or more power users to create a shared folder over the network and designate their Origin installation as the Group Leader. The Group Leader can publish various Origin files—such as projects, templates, fitting functions, and more—to this folder. Any other Origin users who join as Group Members can then access and use these shared files directly from their own installations.
In addition to using a shared folder via a network path (UNC), it’s also possible to configure non-UNC paths for folder sharing. This allows you to leverage cloud storage services like SharePoint, Dropbox, and others as long as the folders are synced locally and accessible via File Explorer. This blog post demonstrates how to set up shared access by creating local shortcuts to a SharePoint-synced folder on both the group leader’s and group members’ Origin installations. Alternatively, you can use the “Sync” feature in SharePoint to achieve the same result. For more information, see Microsoft’s guide on viewing SharePoint files in File Explorer. But for this tutorial we will be covering the shortcut method because it offers improved performance.
Create a Local Shortcut to SharePoint
The first step is to choose a folder on SharePoint you want to use as the Group Folder. For this tutorial, we’ve selected a Group Folder that we created within the Documents library on our Tutorial SharePoint site.
The next step is to click the Add shortcut to OneDrive button to add a local shortcut to the OneDrive folder on our computer.
Watch for the popup messages confirming that the folder has been successfully added. Also, ensure your OneDrive is set up correctly so it can sync the new Group Folder without issues.
You can open File Explorer (Windows Explorer) and navigate to your OneDrive folder to confirm that the Group Folder shortcut has been successfully added.
Set Group Folder Location
Next, we’ll set the location of the Group Folder in the Origin software.
To do this, go to Preferences > Set Group Folder Location.…
When the dialog opens, it will prompt you to enter the file path to the Group Folder. To find this, return to File Explorer, locate the shortcut in your OneDrive folder, and copy the full file path from the address bar
Go back to the dialog box and paste the copied file path.
In Group Leader’s Origin
For a power user (Group Leader) who will publish files to share with others, be sure to check the Group Leader Machine box during setup. Then click OK to complete the configuration. Then you can choose Preferences: Group Folder Manager… to publish files. The published files will show in the Group folder on SharePoint.
In Group Member’s Origin
The Group Folder Members will receive the Origin files published by the group leader. When setting up the Group Folder location on a client machine, do not check the Group Leader Machine box. Simply click OK to complete the setup as a Group Member. This ensures that Origin is configured to receive files from the Group Folder rather than publish them.
Once published files are received, they will appear under Help: Open Folder: User Files Folder > GroupShared. These files will automatically be added to the Origin interface in their respective locations.
Whenever Origin starts up and detects that the Manager has modified the contents of the Group Folder, the member will receive a prompt asking if they want to update their Group Folder to include the new content.
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