Hidden information in a file

[Anonymous]

Does anybody have any idea if some information can be attached to a drawing
that can not be edited or removed nor seen by the users? I have a suspision
that some of our employees, that are leaving the firm to start their own
bussines have started there cad standards by stealing the blocks we have
spent so much time and money creating.

If anybody has any idea on how to tag these blocks with an invisible and
undeletable entity I would appreciate it.

Thank you

[dalexander]

I think more to the point is to consult a lawyer to see how to set up a system of protecting against theft of electronic information. Employees sign a letter of aggreement not to remove or copy electronic information for use elsewhere. If they violate this agrement then what is the penality? Some blocks are can be identified by their mistakes and you could add specific entities, dots at specific locations, under intersections of lines that had no specific use to identify the blocks. You would have to archive copies of each such block, ( a write once cd would work) to prove by date that the blocks where yours. It is alot of work to set up and keep current. The tail wagging the dog comes to mind. Either you can trust your employees or you cannot. We have had this happen to us where the employee took our system to another office and then said that it was his. This didn't really help him as the other office quickly realized that he had taken the system from us and consquently he was not a truthfull person. He or they are still using what he took (r10 ) and hasn't been able to advance to paper space. What we try to do is stay current and advance our system whenever anyone leaves. Fortunately, we are a small office and we do not have a turnover rate to speak of. Most of the important system stuff, is not the blocks but way you manage the information and if someone sees how it is done, they will be able to do it the same way. I don't think that you can protect this and I don't think that it is worth trying. I know that this doesn't really answer the question that you asked but I think that the issue is bigger than just protecting your blocks. Dave Alexander

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob,

You may want to investigate using the lisp function regapp. This will
register a string of your choice as an application in the table section (as
opposed to the entity section) of a drawing. As I recall you can also add
EED to table section entities. Off the top of my head, once registered I
don't believe anyone can remove the appname from the table section. Though
someone may know of a way to do that.

As an example:

(regapp "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ Corporation")

Then if you were checking for legitimacy in drawing that had that block
inserted:

(tblsearch "APPID" "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
Corporation")

would return an entity list similar to:

((0 . "APPID") (2 . "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
Corporation") (70 . 0))

and you would know whether or not a block of 'yours' had been inserted. Plus
in the original block (dwg file) the appid would exist.

hth
Michael

"Rob Courter" wrote in message
news:526715900EF0CDCF420B647705082AAA@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> Does anybody have any idea if some information can be attached to a
drawing
> that can not be edited or removed nor seen by the users? I have a
suspision
> that some of our employees, that are leaving the firm to start their own
> bussines have started there cad standards by stealing the blocks we have
> spent so much time and money creating.
>
> If anybody has any idea on how to tag these blocks with an invisible and
> undeletable entity I would appreciate it.
>
> Thank you
>

[Anonymous]

Unfortunally Michael yes it can be modified.

They are other approaches that can be apply to objects - but is not an easy
way -

If you want to know how let me know.

Good luck,

Luis Esquivel
ArqCOM Software
www.arqcom.com.mx

Michael Morgan wrote in message
<6D7711E72740156DBDE3EDC4D0EBF2DC@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW>...
>Hi Rob,
>
>You may want to investigate using the lisp function regapp. This will
>register a string of your choice as an application in the table section (as
>opposed to the entity section) of a drawing. As I recall you can also add
>EED to table section entities. Off the top of my head, once registered I
>don't believe anyone can remove the appname from the table section. Though
>someone may know of a way to do that.
>
>As an example:
>
>(regapp "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ Corporation")
>
>Then if you were checking for legitimacy in drawing that had that block
>inserted:
>
>(tblsearch "APPID" "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
>Corporation")
>
>would return an entity list similar to:
>
>((0 . "APPID") (2 . "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
>Corporation") (70 . 0))
>
>and you would know whether or not a block of 'yours' had been inserted.
Plus
>in the original block (dwg file) the appid would exist.
>
>hth
>Michael
>
>"Rob Courter" wrote in message
>news:526715900EF0CDCF420B647705082AAA@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
>> Does anybody have any idea if some information can be attached to a
>drawing
>> that can not be edited or removed nor seen by the users? I have a
>suspision
>> that some of our employees, that are leaving the firm to start their own
>> bussines have started there cad standards by stealing the blocks we have
>> spent so much time and money creating.
>>
>> If anybody has any idea on how to tag these blocks with an invisible and
>> undeletable entity I would appreciate it.
>>
>> Thank you
>>
>

[Anonymous]

Hi, Dave;

It is a good point, Dave.
What really should be protected is qualified personnel which do the job.
Unfortunately, way too often the person who knows what he/she is doing
gets fired first.

Regards,

Igor

 

 

dalexander wrote:

I
think more to the point is to consult a lawyer to see how to set up a system
of protecting against theft of electronic information. Employees sign a
letter of aggreement not to remove or copy electronic information for use
elsewhere. If they violate this agrement then what is the penality? Some
blocks are can be identified by their mistakes and you could add specific
entities, dots at specific locations, under intersections of lines that
had no specific use to identify the blocks. You would have to archive copies
of each such block, ( a write once cd would work) to prove by date that
the blocks where yours. It is alot of work to set up and keep current.
The tail wagging the dog comes to mind. Either you can trust your employees
or you cannot. We have had this happen to us where the employee took our
system to another office and then said that it was his. This didn't really
help him as the other office quickly realized that he had taken the system
from us and consquently he was not a truthfull person. He or they are still
using what he took (r10 ) and hasn't been able to advance to paper space.
What we try to do is stay current and advance our system whenever anyone
leaves. Fortunately, we are a small office and we do not have a turnover
rate to speak of. Most of the important system stuff, is not the blocks
but way you manage the information and if someone sees how it is done,
they will be able to do it the same way. I don't think that you can protect
this and I don't think that it is worth trying. I know that this doesn't
really answer the question that you asked but I think that the issue is
bigger than just protecting your blocks. Dave Alexander

[Anonymous]

I would like to know more about what you are talking about.
"Luis Esquivel" wrote in message
news:478AB1B21D66102B189E476948A23B0D@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> Unfortunally Michael yes it can be modified.
>
> They are other approaches that can be apply to objects - but is not an
easy
> way -
>
> If you want to know how let me know.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Luis Esquivel
> ArqCOM Software
> www.arqcom.com.mx
>
> Michael Morgan wrote in message
> <6D7711E72740156DBDE3EDC4D0EBF2DC@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW>...
> >Hi Rob,
> >
> >You may want to investigate using the lisp function regapp. This will
> >register a string of your choice as an application in the table section
(as
> >opposed to the entity section) of a drawing. As I recall you can also add
> >EED to table section entities. Off the top of my head, once registered I
> >don't believe anyone can remove the appname from the table section.
Though
> >someone may know of a way to do that.
> >
> >As an example:
> >
> >(regapp "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
Corporation")
> >
> >Then if you were checking for legitimacy in drawing that had that block
> >inserted:
> >
> >(tblsearch "APPID" "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
> >Corporation")
> >
> >would return an entity list similar to:
> >
> >((0 . "APPID") (2 . "This Block: MUMBOBLOCK is copyrighted 2001(c) by XYZ
> >Corporation") (70 . 0))
> >
> >and you would know whether or not a block of 'yours' had been inserted.
> Plus
> >in the original block (dwg file) the appid would exist.
> >
> >hth
> >Michael
> >
> >"Rob Courter" wrote in message
> >news:526715900EF0CDCF420B647705082AAA@in.WebX.SaUCah8kaAW...
> >> Does anybody have any idea if some information can be attached to a
> >drawing
> >> that can not be edited or removed nor seen by the users? I have a
> >suspision
> >> that some of our employees, that are leaving the firm to start their
own
> >> bussines have started there cad standards by stealing the blocks we
have
> >> spent so much time and money creating.
> >>
> >> If anybody has any idea on how to tag these blocks with an invisible
and
> >> undeletable entity I would appreciate it.
> >>
> >> Thank you
> >>
> >
>

[Anonymous]

A rough and ready way to add so called hidden data is to attach extended
data to say model space. This is based on the assumption that most users
won't know where to look or even to look at all!

something like this in VB
Dim xType%(1), xdata(1), xdataOut, xtypeOut

Set AcadDoc = AcadApp.ActiveDocument

With AcadDoc
.ModelSpace.GetXData somestring$, xtypeOut, xdataOut ' add
signature
If IsEmpty(xtypeOut) Then '
if not there
xType(0) = 1001: xdata(0) = somestring$
xType(1) = 1000: xdata(1) = signature$
.ModelSpace.SetXData xType, xdata
End If
End With

Somewhere in the past, I read here that someone was using libraries, but I
ever did anything about that

--
Stuart Nathan @
http://www.office-manager.co.uk