Any way to protect drawings released to other companies

Not really, it is pretty much up to the other companies. Do they actually need the drawings or just the data?

Bob

Download PrimoPDF and print a PDF file. Send them that instead of CAD file.

Phil

How do you suggest the "other companies" mentioned in the original post use a pdf as a base drawing?

"George P" wrote

Simply insert the drawing as an image into the CAD space, adjust the scale and then overlay their linework.

Phil

Ugh! That would make for a poor quality drawing. Usually the Architect will provide a base plan (dwg) for us to use.

Janice

Do you normally xref that drawing into the one you make, use it as a base and edit it or insert it as block and use it as a base.

Bob

How do you insert a pdf as an image? My version (ACA '09) won't import a pdf.

Do you really care if they alter the drawing that you send them. I would only care if I had to save it back on my data base. As long as your files are not corrupted your ass is covered.

Bob

"George P" wrote

Well spotted George, I wondered who would be the first to spot that one! We are fortunate that we have a scan-print-copy system, so we can scan to PDF or Tiff up-to A0 size. It would be necessary to create a Tiff file for import rather than PDF. As others have pointed out, this is a bit down-and-dirty from the recipient's drawing production point of view, but does protect your original vector file from tampering.

Phil

wrote

Good point. If you have a carefully controlled drawing issue procedure, then you will keep an electronic copy of the file at the time it was released. So you can go back to the version you sent out. The main problems occur when others tweak your drawings without reference, to suit their own ends. At this point everything seems to work on paper, and the tweaks are only discovered at the assembly stage.

Phil

We routinely use civil dwgs and erase/turn off items not needed on our dwgs so that our plumbing/electrical work shows up better and less cluttered. We always put the "See Civil drawings for site work" etc in our specs and on drawings. If we couldn't use the civil drawings we'd just end up redrawing it or scan tracing the drawings then reduce the civil guys fee accordingly.

It is acceptable to send actual CAD data to others. But you must designate a control source in case someone edits the CAD data to support their needs. A good control source is a PDF document as it is cannot be changed. You will need to document your process. I designate my engineering deliverable as the PDF file. I also send CAD data to them so they can use it in their designs or whatever. I also add custom properties to the PDF file designating release dates and other info. Case in point; One customer decided to override this concept by converting the data via AI, manipulating and turning it back into a PDF. Of course the resulting PDF file was missing these custom properties. We caught this quickly. iQ

What were they trying to do - change the design and make it look like the change came from you?

precisly, and we caught it and stopped doing business with the group. iQ

I'm intrigued. Why would they go to such lengths? Was it just forgery, or historical revisionism? I can imagine someone trying to pass off one of your designs as theirs and I guess if a 3rd party had screwed up, it might be useful if they could make it look like your blunder, but it sounds like some other motive was at play here. It also sounds as though you thought it might happen, hence the safeguards you've imposed.

it a CYA activity. they had an issue and instead of correcting it they change the rules to match without our consent. iQ