- stored inside FlatCAM app the VisPy data files and at the first start the application will try to copy those files to the APPDATA (roaming) folder in case of running under Windows

- created an app 'switch' named 'self.portable' which when set True it will 'cx-freeze' an portable application

FlatCAMApp.py

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import random
 import simplejson as json
 import lzma
 import threading
+import shutil
 
 from stat import S_IREAD, S_IRGRP, S_IROTH
 import subprocess
@@ -100,6 +101,9 @@ class App(QtCore.QObject):
     version = 8.94
     version_date = "2019/08/31"
     beta = True
+    # make this True is you want to create a portable app - that is, to save the settings files
+    # in the working directory
+    portable = True
 
     # current date now
     date = str(datetime.today()).rpartition('.')[0]
@@ -205,8 +209,11 @@ class App(QtCore.QObject):
                 App.log.debug("Win32!")
             else:
                 App.log.debug("Win64!")
+            if self.portable is False:
+                self.data_path = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_APPDATA, None, 0) + '\FlatCAM'
+            else:
+                self.data_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)))
 
-            self.data_path = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_APPDATA, None, 0) + '\FlatCAM'
             self.os = 'windows'
         else:  # Linux/Unix/MacOS
             self.data_path = os.path.expanduser('~') + '/.FlatCAM'
@@ -232,6 +239,13 @@ class App(QtCore.QObject):
             f = open(self.data_path + '/current_defaults.FlatConfig')
             f.close()
         except IOError:
+            if sys.platform == 'win32':
+                # this happen only once, at the first launch of the app.
+                # I use this to copy the vispy data files to the APPDATA folder, for Windows
+                source_path = self.data_path + '\\vispy\\data'
+                target_path = os.getenv('APPDATA') + '\\vispy'
+                self.copy_and_overwrite(from_path=source_path, to_path=target_path)
+
             App.log.debug('Creating empty current_defaults.FlatConfig')
             f = open(self.data_path + '/current_defaults.FlatConfig', 'w')
             json.dump({}, f)
@@ -2103,6 +2117,19 @@ class App(QtCore.QObject):
                 except Exception as e:
                     log.debug("Could not open FlatCAM Script file as App parameter due: %s" % str(e))
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def copy_and_overwrite(from_path, to_path):
+        """
+        From here:
+        https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12683834/how-to-copy-directory-recursively-in-python-and-overwrite-all
+        :param from_path: source path
+        :param to_path: destination path
+        :return: None
+        """
+        if os.path.exists(to_path):
+            shutil.rmtree(to_path)
+        shutil.copytree(from_path, to_path)
+
     def set_ui_title(self, name):
         self.ui.setWindowTitle('FlatCAM %s %s - %s    %s' %
                                (self.version,