Autodesk Student infiltration into production drawings

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Warnings and plot stamps showing: "PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION" have taken over several (hundred, presumably) production drawings out of tens of thousands. I recently had 2014 lt and just upgraded to 2019 and I am now getting these messages. A co-worker has been complaining for over a year but I wouldn't get the same messages she got when I pulled up the same drawing. 

Anyways I received a drawing from a German crane supplier and it shows the student error about I think I caused all of this! (or maybe it was a block pulled from the internet)

Is there any way to search what files have the educational warning? I have over 35,000 production drawings spanning 6 gigs for just one department! This is not including over 35,000 customer supplied/ my company install drawings spanning over a whopping 60 gigs! 

I am able to circumvent the plot for each drawings as we come across them but what a PITA and going through each file individually is not going to happen. 

Any suggestions will be considered! 

[DarrenP]

please read: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/FAQ-Rein...

per autodesks license agreement this cannot be removed

you will need to investgate who is ineffecting the files and probably take some legal action

[Anonymous]

I sure can remove; the work around is not difficult but is necessary! My company pays a lot of money for seats of legit software - we should be able to print documents regardless if a block (that came from this community) was made in a student version or if a customer sends in a drawing with the student produced note. The company that sent me the drawings is a known international mechanical manufacturer and they may be victim to someone sending them something drawn via student or a rouge block.



I am thinking I infected our files by using this drawings sent to us. I have taken blocks or items from there and moved to another template created by my company to design/ create installer drawings. From this drawing I move items and blocks to another template to create shop drawings for us to manufacture from. We may pull an current drawing and use this as a template for something else completely different!



This is not a simple case, nor am I asking for a simple solution. Legal action is out of the question.

[RobDraw]

Unfortunately, the stamps weren't visible for many years, otherwise you would have caught this much sooner. I'm pretty sure AutoDesk does not want the procedure for removing it posted here, so automation of that procedure would have to be sought elsewhere. There are batch processing programs that might be able to help you out with the mountain of work that needs to be done.

[cadffm]

"Is there any way to search what files have the educational warning?"

Ask here for an updated version
http://www.manusoft.com/software/eduscan/

[Anonymous]

If I pay for a subscription of AutoCAD, then support is included. The probably is not individually removing the message, but doing it on a mass level.



I'm not sure why 2014 Lt package is not showing drawings as being produced by a student version. I actually had to uninstall and reinstall twice in one years' time due to registry errors dealing with the object properties. This is actually a known problem of 2014 and there is a lot out there but the only fix is to what I did. It is possible that the produced by student version message didn't show up for the very same registry error. I actually had to upgrade because 14 wouldn't install correct after about 10 hours of trying.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that looks legit but unfortunately the lowest version purchased outright is 2014 and many of us have upgraded to the subscription.



Per the website, anything over 2002 is not supported! I like where you are going with that for sure!

[cadffm]

<If I pay for a subscription of AutoCAD, then support is included.>
Yes, you can ask your Support for HOW DO,
but the will not do your work.

< The probably is not individually removing the message, but doing it on a mass level.>
So you have to find "your way" to do this.
Do have practis with batch jobs like this?
( or you find an offered program which can do it for multiple files )

"I'm not sure why 2014 Lt package is not showing drawings as being produced by a student version"

Because it was designed as.
2014-2018 dont show the message and by saveing the stamp informatio erased (not removed).

[dgorsman]

As mentioned up-thread, there was a brief span of time where the old EDU flag was not processed.  Starting with the 2019 releases there is a new EDU flag in the files.  So any older methods may not detect the new one.  One way that might help is simply doing a batch plot to PDF (I'd recommend doing this on *all* incoming files, since you aren't certain where this came from).

While legal action might be a little overboard you should notify your vendor/supplier about their content possibly containing the EDU flag.  Maybe an intern took work home or to school, maybe one of their third-party "drafting mills" isn't complying with license terms.  Either way as a reputable company steps should be taken to ensure compliance.  That way if they get into an audit situation they don't get caught with their pants not only down, but up waving on the flag pole.

Contact your reseller for assistance regarding EDU content in your system.  They may be able to arrange a one-off bulk detection of files.  This won't be an ongoing service, as it's expected that those with commercial licenses are taking appropriate steps to avoid the problem i.e. dealing with legitimate sources, screening incoming files, and fixing it when found.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the in-depth reply! Ill definitely be working with IT again on this once things settle down and he can get with our reseller. You are right about it being a number of things that caused this. We have hundreds of customers ranging from international manufacturers to two man automaters and resellers.



I have nailed down where I got MY AutoCAD drawing with the student stamp but there is no telling how many times this has happened before.

[DarrenP]

even if you got in touch with autodesk they will no longer provide the tool to get rid this message

they used to for a few years but stopped

[RobDraw]

😉 Why would they make the tool readily available? That would defeat the purpose of having the stamp in the first place.

[Anonymous]

NOT everything is black and white. Things happen that are outside of our control.



Why pay $50 bucks a month for something when you can pay $100 dollars a year and deal with the same messages?? That is where AutoCAD can and should step in to help us filter out drawings that have been contaminated and mass/batch convert them to being correct!

[RobDraw]

Nice try, but I'm pretty sure the EULA states that Autodesk is not responsible for this type of thing. That would mean that, legally, they do not have to provide any support in this type of matter in addition to being able to sue for such a breach. That is the black and white part.

Back when the Ed stamp used to print, there were a number of ways to get rid of it from the infected files. Some more elegant than others, but I never had to deal with it on such a large scale. Over the last few years when it wasn't printing, I worried about companies that may have inadvertently infected numbers of files, like in this case, and the companies that they might have infected by sharing their files, since collaboration has taken off tremendously in that time period. It's a very possible hidden epidemic until they update to 2019.

So, with that said.

Does AutoDesk have a legal leg to stand on here and possibly sue anyone that has the Ed stamp present? I'm no judge, but I'd say, probably. They need a clear cut way to prevent companies from using content that is created using their free licenses for their software. Not unreasonable, IMHO.

Should they sue anyone if the theoretical epidemic happens? IMHO, absolutely not. That would be horrible for customer relations. In fact, they should 100% help anyone that asks for help in getting rid of it. No questions asked. Simply because the plot stamp wasn't there.

[Anonymous]

What is the "nice try" connotation? Because I had no idea that I received an AutoCAD drawing with an ED stamp and in turn infect files from here on out, possibly changing a template overwriting existing with the infected file.



I had no idea that this was happening until a coworker with an (2013 I think) older version, starts complaining and traces it back to some files I created.



No way that Autodesk can hold my company accountable for such files being in our possession. We pay monthly for subscriptions and have a history of purchasing full license for years and years; especially since there was no way of knowing if a file had an ED stamp or not!

[RobDraw]

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@Anonymouswrote:
What is the "nice try" connotation? Because I had no idea that I received an AutoCAD drawing with an ED stamp and in turn infect files from here on out, possibly changing a template overwriting existing with the infected file.



I had no idea that this was happening until a coworker with an (2013 I think) older version, starts complaining and traces it back to some files I created.



No way that Autodesk can hold my company accountable for such files being in our possession. We pay monthly for subscriptions and have a history of purchasing full license for years and years; especially since there was no way of knowing if a file had an ED stamp or not!

---

I'm only saying that the EULA covers this situation and, legally speaking, ignorance is not a defense if Autodesk decides to sue. 

[cadffm]

@RobDraw schrieb:
Over the last few years when it wasn't printing, I worried about companies that may have inadvertently infected numbers of files, like in this case, and the companies that they might have infected by sharing their files, since collaboration has taken off tremendously in that time period. It's a very possible hidden epidemic until they update to 2019.

That was only possible in 2014 (that was new for me, but dgorsman wrote it to me, thx)

for 2015-2018 not, these versions (really) remove the stamp informations.

And 2019 is not copy this information to other files,except command wblock) (that was the problem up to 2013 / or like dgorsman said to me 2014)

@Anonymous

"May I remove the education watermark in AutoCAD 2019 and/or AutoCAD 2019 vertical products?

• It is intended that this watermark promotes legitimate use of AutoCAD software licensed by students and educators through the Autodesk Education Community and any action to bypass the watermark is a violation of your license terms."

like copy, dxf or inserting

But the other side, when 2014 (SP1+) only hide the stamp, no one could handle it.

And only for me, you are right with your opinion.

Ask the company above for updated version of EDUscan.

My newest version i found is for unsing in version 2013-2015

[RobDraw]

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@cadffmwrote:

@RobDrawschrieb:
Over the last few years when it wasn't printing, I worried about companies that may have inadvertently infected numbers of files, like in this case, and the companies that they might have infected by sharing their files, since collaboration has taken off tremendously in that time period. It's a very possible hidden epidemic until they update to 2019.

That was only possible in 2014 

for 2015-2018 not, these versions (really) remove the stamp informations.

---

If that were the case, why is the OP suddenly having the stamp present in all those files having only recently updated to 2019 with the "new" stamp? I think the only explanation is that 2019 is recognizing the "old" stamp and it never went away as you stated.

[cadffm]

Please read my answer again.

2014SP1 NOT removed the stamp flag, only 2015-2018 versions removed them by saving.

If you open an edu file (from pre 2015 or 2019 edu version) the message&stamp appears.

In 2014SP1 he copied the flag vy copy and paste or in other ways to some files,
but he never saw a message about them.
2019 detect the flag.

I stated only the true, with version 2015-2018 saved files are clean (clean = without the flag)

[RobDraw]

I wish you were better at English... I misunderstood you earlier.