security

[tulum]

Hey folks,

Is there anyway to lock a drawing so they are only readable. I would like to password protect drawings, without using a digital signature or saving the autocad version to .dwf.

Any Ideas.

 

[Exxit]

tulum,

I think it's not really possible to lock(100%) a *.dwg. But look here:

http://www.cadlock.com/

Lothar

ADT 2004
ACAD 2002

 

[borgunit]

Like EXXIT said, about all locks can be picked (pun intended). We usually take it to a neutral/uneditable format like PDF or TIFF.

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers

 

[zdas04]

Why don't you want to use the DWF format (or PDF for that matter)? Your question seems to be the issue that DWF was developed for.

David

 

[xgrigorix]

I'll agree with zdas04 - DWFit!

 

[tulum]

The reason is that I do not want two copies.

I want to be able to edit the jobs on the go and not have to create a new dwf everytime.

 

[zdas04]

It sounds like you are talking about people on the same network, can't you put it on a drive that most people have read-only access to. They won't be able to open it while you are editing it, but it may work.

Your original question sounded like you were distributing it outside your organization (i.e., you have to make a copy anyway) if not, then disk management seems to make more sense than more complex options.

David

 

[cadnutcase]

You can convert PDF's back to AutoCAD pretty easily and accurately. But this is still the best way if you sending drawings out of house. If you start looking at different formats then your clients have to have those readers to read them.

One thing I like to do if you must send a client a dwg file is to lock all the layers, and the use a layer filter to make them all dissappear. 90% of the people I deal with can't figure out how to unlock them because the don't know about the filters.

Also using paperspace/modelspace usually causes them some headaches and they usually give up.

If you talking in house, we had our IT department only give write access to our drafting group to our drawings folder, that way no drawings could magically get changed without coming to us first.

We also took away everybodies autocads, which really helped. We gave them a free viewer like edrawings, solved 99% of our problems.

Haven't tried this, but I would imagine that you could save a dwf file out everytime you hit the save button. Should be easy enough.

-cadnutcase.

 

[tulum]

Thanks for the help guys.

I think I will talk to the IT department.

pdf to autocad??? huh??

Regards,
TULUM

 

[cadnutcase]

PDF's can be vectorized or raster images depending on how they are created. PDF's made straight out of autocad can easily be converted back into cad files. The only problem I have is sometimes the my arrowheads aren't filled in. Easy fix.

I use adobe illustrator 10 which has the option to convert PDF's back to dwg. But there are a couple of other programs out there that can do it.

Actually had a vendor one time call my boss and chewed my butt out because he thought we somehow go ahold of his cad drawings. He actually thought we hacked his computers across the internet. He didn't believe me so I took my laptop over to his office and showed him how easy it was.

It was quite funny.