Password protection for part and assembly files

[reginaldmb]

Hi

Is there a way to password protect part and assembly files from being edited?  I am trying to allow users to open .idw files and using the "Drawings Resource Transfer Wizard" to transfer the drawings contents of this idw to other templates. I do not however want the users to be able to edit the parts and assemblies placed in the .idw files.  Clinton Brown has posted a possible solution to the following address.

http://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/Blogs/Blog.aspx?ScoId=79754e24-e639-47ae-993f-71871cb2b48c 

This code however has one problem.  When opening a part or assembly from the .idw environment for the first time (Event Trigger for rule on opening of file) it asks for the password and if typed incorrectly it closes the file.  So this works fine.  However, when opening the part/assembly from the .idw file again it doesn't ask for the password again and hence the user will now have read/write access to the file.

Could someone help with this please?

Reginald

[rossano_praderi]

Hi Reginald,

the solution of Clinton Brown has many problems, as he say, if you loose the password you will never get back your document.

Also is easy to break, there are errors in the original code....is possible to write a better and more trustable solution.

But it will take time to develop this code.

Bregs

Rossano Praderi

[reginaldmb]

Hi Rossano

Thank you for your reply!  Would you be able to give this coding ago?  Perhaps someone else out there has done this already?  Maybe someone from Autodesk?

Kind regards

[rossano_praderi]

Hi Reginald, what's this?

A new competition?!?

Yes, I'm able to do this! 

I would like wait a while....

I will like to see the answers to your request...

Bregs
Rossano Praderi

[MegaJerk]

You might be able to make a plugin that does this, but it would also need to remove / prevent access to altering the plugins being loaded by inventor. It would also need to protect, or check the plugin files / registries that tell inventor what it can or cannot load on start up. Using iLogic rules should be out of the question. 


Out of curiosity, do you want to do this because the workflow isn't set in stone, or is there just a history of people doing whatever the hell they want to the files despite the fact that there is indeed a workflow? 

[reginaldmb]

Hi Rossano

Apologies if I offended you. Wasnt sure if you "offered" to have a look at it when you get time.

By the way, my wish is two-fold. Firstly I would like to add a password to the .idw  file (prevent editing sketches and accessing .ipt and .iam files from within the .idw) and secondly I would like to password protect certain parts and assemblies.

Regards

Reginald

[reginaldmb]

Hi MegaJerk

Thanks for your reply.  Yes indeed, people unfortunately still do their own thing without thinking of the design behind it.  They simply make changes to fit their design.  Ideally I would like to be able to add password protection to a file and then give somone the password if needed, but the password must then expire after say a week to ensure that people do not keep local copies of a network-shared master folder.  So I want people to be able to make changes to parts (local project-related copy) if allowed but not be able to then continue using that local copy in future projects.  I'v been using this principle with Standard Specifications in MS Word and it works really well.

Perhaps this is possible in Inventor with some coding?

Regards

[adam.nagy]

Hi,

What is the problem with the users being able to modify a document? That they will overwrite a central file? In that case you would need a document management system where it's controlled who can check-in what.

Is the problem that they modify something and then print a bad drawing?  

There are also file management systems which password protect files and can put a time bomb in them as well, etc.
I haven't tried any of them so cannot comment on how good they are. One of our partners were showing this at AU.

I'm not aware of "Standard Specifications in MS Word". Could you provide a link? 

I don't think you can achieve what you want by only doing something at the file level if people on purpose will try to mess things up with the documents. If they are just unaware of the problems they are causing by editing a document then you could simply show a dialog when they try to save the changes - even a password would not be necessary.

Cheers,

[reginaldmb]

Hi Adam

Let me try to clarify it a little more.

In the company we have a set of drawings we consider as Company Standard/Typical Drawings.  The idea is that when you can use these as provided by the "custodian" of the various drawings and that you should only have to use the "Drawing Resource Transfer Wizard" to transfer the detail of these Standard/Typical drawings to your own project title block/template as the title blocks are often client-specific.  So, I have all these files stored on a secured network drive and only I have read/write access  (so nobody can overwrite the central/master files.  Everyone else can however make a local copy of a folder (say folder for ladder details ie. idw and its .ipt and .iam files) to his project folder where he can then transfer the .idw drawing to his unique title block and make changes to the .iam or .ipt on the project specific/local drive (if given permission to make edits to the parts/assemblies itself).  The problem is that one cannot only copy the .idw to your project folder without taking the parts and assemblies with it.

People are however wreckless and this has unfortunately left the company red-faced once or twice before.  So, the idea is that you be allowed to copy the central/master files to you project folder, but should you want to make edits to these drawings, you must get in contact with the "custodian" of that specific drawing to obtain a password which will be active for say a week.  This will allow the "custodian" to have an input (and point out risks) in the proposed changes and therefor provide a form of quality control.  The password will have to expire to ensure that outdated local copies with read/write access do not start floating around all over the place after a year or so.

We also have Company Standard Specifications (like say a Wedge Gate Valve Specification) in Word format.  Only the editor (normally the senior engineers) of a specification would have read/write access, but should one want to use that specification in you project you can either use the pdf version or request the word version thereof from the editor who will then provide you with say a 5 day password to make edits.  After the 5 days you will not be able to make edits and the word file becomes useless.  This system is working quite well for us as we never have problems with old word files being reused by certain people over and over again.  By the way, the pdf files also stops working after say a year.  This forces people to always go back to the central files which are regularly revised and kept up to date.

Sorry for the long mail, hope it makes sense and thanks for your input.

Regards

[rossano_praderi]

Hi Reginald,

is on the way to become interesting...the other participants to this thread are fully qualified to find a solution.

I like to follow them.

Anyway if you don't find the right solution I will give you the code...to manage your problem.

Bregs

Rossano Praderi

[adam.nagy]

Why don't you provide e.g. a DWF version of the drawing so that it does not need the part and assembly files and the drawing file cannot be modified either?

[reginaldmb]

Often we do want to give people access to files when they need to make changes as required by clients and given that it would not affect the quality of the design.  This access must then be time-limited for example.  This is better than having people redo the entire drawing from scratch

[reginaldmb]

Hi Rossano

Apologies if I offended you. Wasnt sure if you "offered" to have a look at it when you get time.

By the way, my wish is two-fold. Firstly I would like to add a password to the .idw file (prevent editing sketches and accessing .ipt and .iam files from within the .idw) and secondly I would like to password protect certain parts and assemblies.

Regards
Reginald

[adam.nagy]

I think the question is how far your users would go to circumevent the protection system.

The only thing that I think could be foolproof is a file protection system where you have the files on a virtual encrypted drive from where a driver provides the file.

Not sure how they can prevent you from doing a save as.

Another thing is, do those users have Administrator rights? If not then an Administrator could install some Inventor plugins in the Program Files folder (which requires Administrator rights) that would prevent file save in certain conditions.   

The question of time bombing a PDF has also came up on the net, and one of the answers there was also a file protection system:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Q_27408619.html