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 password-protected 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.
- Digital signature: A high-tech way to add an electronic marker to a DWG file that verifies that someone approved the drawing. You must first get an account with a digital-certificate provider, who serves to authenticate you and your computer. Of course, for this feature to be useful, you need to send drawings to someone who wants to receive digitally authenticated drawings from you (or vice versa) and who has the technological savvy to deal with digital certificates. For more information, see digital signatures, about in the AutoCAD online help system.
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.To activate either of these options for the current drawing, open the Application Menu and choose Save As, and then choose AutoCAD Drawing to display the Save Drawing As dialog box; then choose Tools
Security Options to display the Security Options dialog box before you save the file. If you want to add a digital signature and you have a digital ID from a certificate provider, enter your information on the Digital Signature tab of the Security Options dialog box. If you want to add a password to the current drawing, just type it in the text field on the Password tab of the Security Options dialog box.
After you password-protect and save a DWG file, anyone who tries to open, insert, or xref it will see a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 20-5.
To password-protect a DWF file, use the PUBLISH command and click the Publish Options button in the Publish dialog box. In the DWF Data Options section, click Disabled and choose Specify Password, then type your secret word into the Password field.
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.
