Problems with Copyright 1

[MalcolmNiki]

Is there a way to send a drawing in dwg format where the reciever is unable to make changes to the file. I am having problems with copyright and need to be able to send drawings without the reciever having the ability to change the drawing in any way.

 

[Exxit]

MalcolmNiki,

that is a problem. You can not lock *.dwg files with ACAD. You need a 3rd party tool.
Cadlock:

http://www.cadlock.com/

DWGlock:

http://www.brothersoft.com/dwglock-93011.html

Maybe there are workarounds like lisps in the www.
Some people contaminate the *.dwg with an Educational Stamp. But you can delete it, if you are clever...

Alternative: Think about PDF and DWF files.

Lothar

ADT 2004

 

[brengine]

SaveAs or PrintTo pdf/tiff?

Ken

 

[ctopher]

I think a .dwf may work this way? I'll check into more later.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MalcolmNiki]

Thanks Exxit,I am trying dwglock and cadlock and Our department keep the original DWG and send our clients the copies generated from the dwglock program.

 

[chicopee]

you can XEDIT your drawing if the drawing is Xreferenced by the receiver. If the reciever still manage to change the drawing, this drawing will no longer be an xreferenced

 

[PeterCharles]

NB,
pdf's printed from a CAD programme are not secure as they can be "reversed" to a CAD file format.

 

[fixo]

Off course any thing can be reversed , but a trick is to do a
MINSERT 1 row 1 column , it can not be exploded

 

[zuccus]

fixo,

They fixed that problem. At least in 2007 you can explode minserted blocks.

While there is no way to stop them, you can make it very difficult for a novice cad user.

I like to lock all of the layers and the invert the layer filter to hide all of the layers. That usually takes them a while to find.

Also sometimes just using paper space/model space will confuse them enough.

The best way though is still to print the file, then scan it slightly twisted on your scanner to pdf.