Chapter 20: Drawing on the Internet 457

The Drawing Protection Racket

Whether you’re sending DWG or DWF files, you may be concerned about their misuse (that is, by the wrong people or for the wrong purposes), abuse (for example, modification without your consent), or reuse (on other projects or by other people without due compensation to you). AutoCAD has two features for securing your drawings when you send them to others:

Password protection: Enables you to lock a DWG or DWF file so that only those who type the password that you’ve specified can open, insert, or xref it.

AutoCAD LT users can’t apply a password, but they can open passwordprotected files — if they know the password, of course!

Add password protection to drawings only when you really need it:

• If you forget the password, you’ll no longer be able to open the drawing. Neither AutoCAD nor Autodesk has any magical way to extract the password or unlock the drawing.

• After you password-protect a drawing, others can’t insert the drawing as a block or attach it as an xref.

If you’re using a password, you probably should do it on a copy of the drawing that you send; keep an unprotected version for yourself.

Digital signature: Original paper drawings can’t be modified without leaving evidence, and copies are obviously copies. Electronic files can be copied and/or modified without leaving any evidence, so a dispute can arise as to which version is the original. Solution: AutoCAD supports digital signatures. Digital signatures don’t prevent unauthorized people from opening the file, nor do they prevent anyone from modifying it. All they do is to verify that a file has or hasn’t been modified since it was signed if there is ever a dispute. You must first get an account with a digital-certificate provider before you can apply them. For more information, see digital signatures, about in the AutoCAD online help system.

Although electronic security features such as the ones described in this section can be useful as part of a strategy to protect your work from misuse, they’re not a substitute for communicating clearly — preferably in the form of written contracts — what constitutes appropriate use of drawings that you send to or receive from others.

Autodesk Weather Forecast: Increasing Cloud

Even if you just came out from under your rock in the past two years, you may not have heard of “the cloud,” or may not really understand what it means. Okay, here’s the truth; the cloud really just means the Internet, which

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