'Disabling' CAD Drawings

DOCARCH · 19-03-2010 9:46pm #1

This may seem like a bit vindictive and petty but it's dog eat dof out there!

I have been shafted off a job by a client who has found somebody else (cheaper) to carry on a house design project. I have to/am sort of obliged in this case to hand over the CAD files.

Aside from making the CAD files Read Only (that's too obvious) is there any other way of slightly messing up the drawings/files to make it very difficult for a another person to use the drawings?

A bit petty, I know, but I am seriously miffed as it is a good design!

sprinkles · 20-03-2010 1:00am

Only way I know is to save them as a dxf, it'll make it read only. Not sure what you mean by slightly messing up the drawings!? You could screw around with the layers - turn them all off for printing etc but that'll only confuse someone who doesn't have much of a clue about CAD.

DOCARCH · 20-03-2010 8:57am

Thanks. Have calmed down today. Not sure what I mean myself by messing up the drawings!

I was just intending to make drawings almost impossible to use so somebody would have to re-draw them.

Rulmeq · 20-03-2010 10:02am

DOCARCH wrote: »

Thanks. Have calmed down today. Not sure what I mean myself by messing up the drawings! I was just intending to make drawings almost impossible to use so somebody would have to re-draw them.

A simple solution is to deliver drawings in PDF, so they don't have access to the raw file. You can limit the resolution, and you can even password protect it (use something like their date of birth as the password, and they will be very reluctant to pass it along :P ).

Edit: out of interest why do you have to hand over the drawings? Were you paid for them? If you were, then hand them over and get on with life

It's too short.

DOCARCH · 20-03-2010 11:08am

Rulmeq wrote: »

Edit: out of interest why do you have to hand over the drawings? Were you paid for them? If you were, then hand them over and get on with life It's too short.

It's a design for a nice (if I say so myself) one-off house in the country. I gave them a very good deal on fees (compared to 'normal' architect fees) and now that the design is complete all of a sudden they have found somebody cheaper to carry on the project forward and want to terminate my engagement. That's the reason I'm a bit miffed!

Rulmeq · 20-03-2010 12:57pm

DOCARCH wrote: »

It's a design for a nice (if I say so myself) one-off house in the country. I gave them a very good deal on fees (compared to 'normal' architect fees) and now that the design is complete all of a sudden they have found somebody cheaper to carry on the project forward and want to terminate my engagement. That's the reason I'm a bit miffed!

Ok, but there is very little you can do, you agreed to the price. In future, perhaps have a "design fee" that you will deduct from your full fee if they decide to go all the way with you.

3dsteel · 20-03-2010 3:49pm

I don't condone such actions but you could explode all the dimensions and put all entities on the same layer! After exploding the dimensions you could scale everything up or down 1.123456! This will make editing the drawings very difficult for the new drafty!!

techyness · 20-03-2010 7:38pm

Nasty thing to be doing. Anyway heres one that drives me mad.... z co-ordinates! i dont know how they do it but i used to get drawings from a surveyor - always with z co-ordinates - tis a nightmare to sort...

sydthebeat · 22-03-2010 9:07pm

techyness wrote: »

Nasty thing to be doing. Anyway heres one that drives me mad.... z co-ordinates! i dont know how they do it but i used to get drawings from a surveyor - always with z co-ordinates - tis a nightmare to sort...

the below was a godsend to me... its posted in the autocad tips and tricks thread....

ever have to work on a drawing where the Z co ords are all jumbled up - and intersection snaps / fillet / polyline edit don't work because "lines are not co planar" - try this

^C^C_UCS;;_move _all;;0,0,1e99;;_move _all;;0,0,-1e99;;

Mellor · 23-03-2010 11:54pm

Some pretty silly ideas throw out so far. Not aimed at anyone in paticular. But some comments.

DOCARCH wrote: »

Aside from making the CAD files Read Only (that's too obvious) is there any other way of slightly messing up the drawings/files to make it very difficult for a another person to use the drawings?

That would be an incredible easy fix.

sprinkles wrote: »

Only way I know is to save them as a dxf, it'll make it read only.

You can save back from dxf to dwg

3dsteel wrote: »

I don't condone such actions but you could explode all the dimensions and put all entities on the same layer! After exploding the dimensions you could scale everything up or down 1.123456! This will make editing the drawings very difficult for the new drafty!!

The scaling would be easy to spot and easy to fix.
Layers is an obvious thing to do, exploding everything too. Both of these are good.

techyness wrote: »

Nasty thing to be doing. Anyway heres one that drives me mad.... z co-ordinates! i dont know how they do it but i used to get drawings from a surveyor - always with z co-ordinates - tis a nightmare to sort...

Easy fix, and not and issue for prints only.

Also, PDFs can be converted back to DWG. I've also once successfully converted a old hand drawing (on paper) to DWG.

OP, if it was me, explode and supply in PDF. However, if you have been paid for the design stage, you don't really have a right to fcuk around like this

DOCARCH · 24-03-2010 8:20am

Mellor wrote: »

However, if you have been paid for the design stage, you don't really have a right to fcuk around like this

Thanks for the replies and advise. Just to say that I have calmed a bit since last week, so when I get paid, will hand over the files.

Just one thing to point out though (re: Mellor's comment above), I checked this out sometime ago - a client is not entitled to recieve an electronic/CAD file of your drawings. Like your design, the electronic/CAD file remains your property. A client is only entitled to a paper copy of drawings or the design.

I know my own my own comment answers my original question but if you turn around to a client who wants the CAD files and tell them this, that can really p**s them off completely!

Victor · 24-03-2010 8:42am

Um, copyright?

DOCARCH · 24-03-2010 11:17am

Victor wrote: »

Um, copyright?

Yes, that's really the whole issue. Probably for another thread in another forum.

Mellor · 24-03-2010 1:31pm

DOCARCH wrote: »

Just one thing to point out though (re: Mellor's comment above), I checked this out sometime ago - a client is not entitled to recieve an electronic/CAD file of your drawings. Like your design, the electronic/CAD file remains your property. A client is only entitled to a paper copy of drawings or the design.

I know my own my own comment answers my original question but if you turn around to a client who wants the CAD files and tell them this, that can really p**s them off completely!

Hmmm, not entirely true. The design remains your property. And nobody can use your design without your permission.

But, there is no reason, while at the initial agreement stage a client couldn't request the CAD files included as part of the job.
Of course, you have no obligation to agree, and you of course are entitled to include a fee. If I was a layperson, and hired somebody until planning stage only, I'd certainly make sure I agreed to get CAD files, paying for or otherwise.

As for my comments above, I assumed that as they were now requesting them, and therefore you had previously agreed. Apologies if not the case.

archtech · 26-03-2010 9:35am

One way of messing up a drawing is to insert a block or piece of text from a drawing produced by an Educational version of AutoCAD. It is quiet difficult to eliminate and one gets the produced by an Educational version of AutoCAD border around each plot.

bfocusd · 28-03-2010 9:54pm

Mellor wrote: »

Hmmm, not entirely true. The design remains your property. And nobody can use your design without your permission.

But, there is no reason, while at the initial agreement stage a client couldn't request the CAD files included as part of the job.
Of course, you have no obligation to agree, and you of course are entitled to include a fee. If I was a layperson, and hired somebody until planning stage only, I'd certainly make sure I agreed to get CAD files, paying for or otherwise.

As for my comments above, I assumed that as they were now requesting them, and therefore you had previously agreed. Apologies if not the case.

if you've been paid you've no right to screw with there drawings,
you were hired to do a job and if you have been paid in full i wouldnt complain as there are many company's out there not willing to hand over the money after the job has been done.. i know people waiting months for there money and have even resorted to the small claims court...

but i do have a really annoying thing that cannot be fixed quick,
autocad proxy entitys!

if your working in autocad 2008 or newer..
there are certain commands that dont exist in previous versions.

the difference with these is these come up as little rectangles saying autocad proxy entitys.. they can be certain blocks or even leaders.. there is a particular type of leader that always causes havoc..

i dont have autocad 2008 at the moment to list these commands but they exist and are the biggest pain in the h*le ever!!!

i worked with a guy also once who was let go and he decided to have some fun, a .lsp routine was added into a standard autocad command (mvset-up.. still haunts me to this day!!) when i entered it my whole cad setup changed!

from not being able to draw a line to all of my page sizes for plotting being changed to the cast of star wars!!!! i had no idea where to start the fix and hoped that the command may be a system variable.. nope.. instead of starwars i had a pc with different pop-up boxes in Hebrew!!

it was impossible and took me almost a month to repair the damage.

but after it all i take my hat of to the guy!! it was proper skill to shut down an entire company with one small command edit!!

gman2k · 07-04-2010 9:56pm

bfocusd wrote: »

but after it all i take my hat of to the guy!! it was proper skill to shut down an entire company with one small command edit!!

So that's why *insert name of any big Arch company* has gone bust recently:D

CoalBucket · 07-04-2010 9:59pm

DOCARCH wrote: »

This may seem like a bit vindictive and petty but it's dog eat dof out there!

I have been shafted off a job by a client who has found somebody else (cheaper) to carry on a house design project. I have to/am sort of obliged in this case to hand over the CAD files.

Aside from making the CAD files Read Only (that's too obvious) is there any other way of slightly messing up the drawings/files to make it very difficult for a another person to use the drawings?

A bit petty, I know, but I am seriously miffed as it is a good design!

You could print the drawings, scan in as a pdf and then attach to a new file. That way he is technically getting the drawings in CAD format but won't be able to do anything with them

bfocusd · 07-04-2010 11:47pm

gman2k wrote: »

So that's why *insert name of any big Arch company* has gone bust recently:D

emm, lets just change the arch to engineering..
it hasnt gone totally down yet but it took some hit!

bfocusd · 07-04-2010 11:50pm

CoalBucket wrote: »

You could print the drawings, scan in as a pdf and then attach to a new file. That way he is technically getting the drawings in CAD format but won't be able to do anything with them

or you could just pfd them and then copy a window in adobe and paste into cad!!
i use that method all the time to cheat when drawing diagrams or schemtics!!
works a treat and takes 1/4 of the time!!

Lu Tze · 07-05-2010 3:22pm

archtech wrote: »

One way of messing up a drawing is to insert a block or piece of text from a drawing produced by an Educational version of AutoCAD. It is quiet difficult to eliminate and one gets the produced by an Educational version of AutoCAD border around each plot.

Came across this before, an xref had been saved with an educational version.

dxfout gets rid of it though.

djwinger · 15-05-2010 7:34pm

but i do have a really annoying thing that cannot be fixed quick,
autocad proxy entitys!

if your working in autocad 2008 or newer..
there are certain commands that dont exist in previous versions.

the difference with these is these come up as little rectangles saying autocad proxy entitys.. they can be certain blocks or even leaders.. there is a particular type of leader that always causes havoc..

The AECTOACAD command will explode all these objects for you.

Anyway, I have to agree with the other people. If you get paid for the job, there's nothing to complain about. I wouldn't worry too much about handing over the drawings anyway. Even a plotted set of drawings won't stop a talented draughtsman from recreating your work digitally. I frequently did this in my last job when they'd lost digital copies of old projects (usually doing a better job than the original draughtsman).

'Disabling' CAD Drawings

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