Watermark in Inventor Drawings

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to add watermark or transparent text in the drawing sheet in Inventor?

[S_May · Accepted solution]

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/de/support/inventor-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcar... 

[pball]

@S_May  That help page is in German and doesn't seem to have an English version.

@Anonymous  I've used the method below to get a watermark on a drawing. It's pretty simple and I believe the font used is a default one for most systems.

It ends up looking like this.

[Paul-Mason]

Have you , when printing/plotting, looked in the printer/plotter settings. Most have an options to set a watermark either a pre-defined watermark or a custom watermark and save it.

[S_May]

https://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2012/05/printing-watermark-on-inventor-file-while-check... 

How to insert transparent text or watermarks in Inventor files
Covered products and versions

Of:
Support
September 24, 2013
DIVIDE
ADD TO COLLECTION
Problem:

An obvious markup should be visible on the drawing for designs that are "confidential", "approved", "in progress" or similar.
Solution:

Some printer drivers or PDF printers offer watermarking or marking functions. Autodesk DWG True View and Autodesk Vault also offer markup and watermark functions. Check if this function can be used.

Inventor itself has no function to insert watermarks in drawings. In addition, there is currently no way to make texts appear transparent.

The following workarounds can be used to create something that resembles a watermark:
Method 1: Text appears behind the drawing

Add an image to the current title block that contains the text on a white background.
Note: The background color must also be set to "white" for the drawing page.

See Screencast: Drawing Watermarks in Inventor
 
Method 2: Text is displayed in front of the drawing (unfilled text can be used to keep the drawing visible)

Create a sketched symbol that uses text with an open or unfilled style (e.g. SwisBlkOul font). This allows you to insert the stamp icon without hindering geometry.
Note: This method does not work with images.

See screencast: "Confidential" sketch icon in Inventor

 
Method 3: transparent text

    Create a new member.
    Create the text (eg "Confidential") in a sketch.
    Extrude text
    Make the extruded volumes transparent.
    Insert a drawing view of this member into the drawing ("top" of the existing drawing)

[S_May]

WWW 2020 🙂

[Anonymous]

No, i can't find any options like that.

[insan_gunawan]

Hi. I did it in my drawings.
You can try to follow my steps, :

- Create custom border

- insert image (you can add company logo, name, etc.)

- insert new border to drawing

- make it as template

here is the tutorial

https://youtu.be/KCYo2iGFaoo 

Hope it can help

regards

Insan Gunawan

[SteveFrey]

I use a watermark in every PDF drawing that I send out to my clients.  I do this using Adobe Acrobat's watermark feature.  I print my .IDW to a PDF then I apply the watermark.  It gives you the option to apply the watermark in front or behind your page and it also lets you control the overall scale, position and opacity of the watermark.  This works for 99% of my submittals.

[freesbee]

...yes, this method is doable (please note that Swiss721 is also my favorite font for watermarking,  but it is not a standard windows font: I believe it comes with Office).

Wouldn't it be cooler if the pdf translator of Inventor would receive some "facelift" with some new functionalities? There are already a few hundred votes in the Idea section on this specific point.

These two ideas are in the area of PDF Translator improvements (probably it makes sense to cast votes also to the other linked ideas in the same area if we want Adsk to react: I voted all of them):

• Flatten Layers in exported PDFs
• Control over PDF initial view settings

[SteveFrey]

There are some downfalls of this method unless you take further steps.  This will depend on your company policies and your clients are, etc.  I say this because anyone with any of the paid versions of Acrobat can easily go in and remove the watermark.  The easiest way to do this is to apply security permissions to the document using a password.  Acrobat allows you to create actions to automate most of this so if you are releasing a lot of single page documents like me it cuts down on your time.  The only other way around this is to save it as a .bmp or .png and then save again as a .pdf but this is getting crazy already and it can affect the document size and quality when zooming in.  The reason I use a watermark in my documents is to try and prevent someone from going to a competitor with the plans.  This is rare but it has happened.  Nowadays we don't do any kind of shop drawing without a 50% deposit.   

[freesbee]

---

@SteveFrey wrote:

There are some downfalls of this method...

---

...agreed with everything.

Nevertheless the intellectual property protection on a PDF document is far beyond the discussion of the technical feature here. Clearly there are techniques and strategies for protecting against that (and honestly a password protected PDF needs 3 to 5 seconds to be broken, so I tend not to see that as a real "protection").

In our specific case the aim would be to prevent the possibility that some "out of date" drawing gets manufactured by mistake.

Sticking more strictly to the ISO7200, which sets as mandatory the document status (ISO7200-5.3.8) in the titleblock, means that when a drawing gets "superseded" or "obsolete" the corresponding PDF should be reprocessed by the jobserver and the corresponding field in the titleblock should be updated. Clearly the status field is written in the titleblock, but manufacturers tend to oversee that, so watermarking the PDF with "SUPERSEDED" or "OBSOLETE" could minimize this risk.

That is why this feature is important... together with the other 400 votes that here and there require some facelift to the inventor pdf translator:

• PDF Translator should control "PDF initial view" settings by @freesbee
• PDF Translator should be able to flatten layers by @freesbee
• PDF property mapping by @thom-g
• export bookmarks to PDF by @jamie.emmart
• improve control in PDF export by @ambrose

...so maybe it is time for a facelift (or a botox injection as you prefer)

[dr.avon0]

Tell me how to fix the text and image in the drawing (in the drawing field) so as not to interfere with the geometry of the model view? figure 10 - on the drawing field, figure 11 - when printing on paper. Thanks