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Message 1 of 17
joeroscia
710 Views, 16 Replies

PDF Files

Hi Everyone-

 

When sending out a pdf file of a drawing how do you "lock" it down so that it can't be edited?  My company regularly inserts the PE stamp as a block with electronic signature and date on our plans prior to creating a pdf and emailing the file to another consultant or client.

 

Thanks!

16 REPLIES 16
Message 2 of 17
CCDesigner
in reply to: joeroscia

Those settings are on the Security Tab of the Document Properties in your PDF Writer.

 

Good Luck!!

--
R. Williams
AutoCAD 2010 Certified Professional
<!-- If all else fails hit F1 -->
---AutoCAD 2013---
Message 3 of 17
joeroscia
in reply to: CCDesigner

I'm not sure how to do that where I use the driver that comes with AutoCAD-DWG to PDF...

Message 4 of 17
CCDesigner
in reply to: joeroscia

I use Adobe PDF, but I can set my security from the Properties (Custom Properties) of the Printer/Plotter, but it doesn't look like you can do that through the DWG to PDF plotter, so you will probably have to open the PDF in Acrobat afterward and change the settings...UNLESS someone knows of another way to do it.

 

Good Luck!!

 

 

--
R. Williams
AutoCAD 2010 Certified Professional
<!-- If all else fails hit F1 -->
---AutoCAD 2013---
Message 5 of 17
joeroscia
in reply to: CCDesigner

I have Adobe as well but I didn't want to assign passwords, etc to the file...

Message 6 of 17
CCDesigner
in reply to: joeroscia

In order to "'lock' it down so that it can't be edited?" you must create a password protected PDF. Unless I'm missing something, I believe that is the only way to "lock it down".

--
R. Williams
AutoCAD 2010 Certified Professional
<!-- If all else fails hit F1 -->
---AutoCAD 2013---
Message 7 of 17
joeroscia
in reply to: CCDesigner

Unless it is different but I have a letter in pdf form that the only thing I can do with it is view and print it.  When I open that particular file it doesn't ask for a password but it does have a digital signature...

Message 8 of 17
CCDesigner
in reply to: joeroscia

Yes, a digital signature is different than just adding a password. In that case, you'll want to read this:

 

http://www.adobe.com/security/digsig.html

 

Good Luck!!

--
R. Williams
AutoCAD 2010 Certified Professional
<!-- If all else fails hit F1 -->
---AutoCAD 2013---
Message 9 of 17
ElmoSmiley
in reply to: joeroscia

Perhaps you are talking about a post-processed item (example letter). If your office has a scanner and your CAD document is no larger tha the scanner will handle, then try printing the document to paper and then scanning to PDF.

 

Printing directly to PDF will save certain elements like your engineer's seals as separately inserted entities that can ba later manipulated somewhat like vector graphics.. Printing first, then scanning the print to PDF will eliminate a certain amount of editability of the document (much like the letter) changing everything to raster graphics.

 

You may also see if Adobe, ECopy, CutePDF, PDFwriter, AutoCAD PDF Print has any type of "flatten" option. Otherwise, password protect is gonna be your only other option.

Message 10 of 17
pendean
in reply to: joeroscia

To blow away your fantasy of a 'locked' PDF, zoom into a portion of the locked letter you note in this last reply, pretend it is your stamp. Start any screen capture routine (windows7 has a built-in Snipping Tool, other Windows versions have free 3rd party addons, and your keyboard as a printscreen button) and paste the result in a graphics program (say, Windows Paint).

 

Now you, and anyone one else, has your 'stamp' to do with as they wish in any software, including pasting it in AutoCAD.

 

As noted by others, explore Digital Signatures instead (no, they do not involve a traditional stamp and hand signature), but a paid service through a 3rd party.

Message 11 of 17
CCDesigner
in reply to: pendean

"Now you, and anyone one else, has your 'stamp' to do with as they wish in any software, including pasting it in AutoCAD."

 

I hear that ALL the time, but still don't understand why it matters if the only "legitimate" stamp is the "wet-stamp" (those with the PE's actual signature).

--
R. Williams
AutoCAD 2010 Certified Professional
<!-- If all else fails hit F1 -->
---AutoCAD 2013---
Message 12 of 17
pendean
in reply to: CCDesigner

Where wet seals are strictly adhered to, you are correct.

 

Where a stamp/signature image are used with or without the knowledge of the author seems to be of concern to the OP here and simply locking a PDF as noted by them in the 'letter' example offers no security at all.

Message 13 of 17
CCDesigner
in reply to: pendean

That makes sense. Thanks! Smiley Wink

--
R. Williams
AutoCAD 2010 Certified Professional
<!-- If all else fails hit F1 -->
---AutoCAD 2013---
Message 14 of 17
namssurt
in reply to: CCDesigner

It doesn't matter if the file is password protected against copying, printing, or extracting since the protection can easily be turned off by relatively cheap software.

Your best bet is to print pdf's as an image rather than as a line drawing since that is the more difficult to edit, but file sizes grow astronomically. A 200 k  file could easily end up 4 meg. One other trick is to watermark almost white on white, usingg that same color as part of the desired image and then if the issue of counterfeiting comes up you can at least show that only part of the watermark is present or part of the image is missing and therefore the image was clipped, and in the latter case color filters were used to hide the act of clipping.

jg
Message 15 of 17
BernardMadoff
in reply to: joeroscia

embrace the world you currently live in and share and share a like.

 

anything and everything can be copied today so if soemone wants to use and copy your data they will and no doubt you would do the same, don't tell me you have never copied anything from the web

Message 16 of 17
namssurt
in reply to: BernardMadoff

While you are absolutely right that you can't prevent 100% the illegal use of information, the problem here is the illegal use of a professional seal which constitutes identity theft.

 

Reminds me of a time when I got a set of plans that were on sheets with a P.E.'s logo. Needed to ask some questions and called the P.E. He had never seen the sheets and had nothing to do with them. Apparently a draftsman had once discussed with him using him to seal his drawings. Never went further than discussion, but the draftsman got a copy of his logo and used it to legitimize his sheets. Real problem since the draftsman was working for a good customer. But wasn't our fault. Conversation ended with P.E. asking to talk to a co-worker that was one of his best friends.

 

Another draftsman got a raoiised seal that only said he was a draftsman. Slipped a lot of drawings past the building department who felt the seal but never read what it said.

jg
Message 17 of 17
pendean
in reply to: namssurt

Once anything leaves your control (rock, tablet, papyrus, paper, email, tweet, or electronic format print) it's subject to theft. A reality that's not suddenly dead because it's 2011 🙂

 

Anyone selling you anything claiming an ability to stop the above is kidding you: the burden is on the creator to be able to prove the theft has taken place.

 

Seek legal counsel on how to conduct business sharing files with outsiders and writing contracts that spell it all out up front. Then be dilligent about knowing what happens to everything you publish and issue.

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