AutoCAD Educational Stamp

We just received yet another drawing from a customer which was done with the educational version of AutoCAD. Of course when we open it we receive the standard warning...etc and even when the designer just copies and pastes the objects into his legal copy of AutoCAD the educational stamp follows.

Now, unless we redraw everything from scratch there seems to be no way around this. This drawing is a complex sheet metal layout (round to square duct work) so it's going to be quite a chore to recreate it.

Without violating any terms of the EULA, what are some steps one could take to shorten the workload on something like this?

Tell your customer that you cannot legally work with drawings supplied using educational software, and that you will have to redraw them @ whatever hourly rate you charge. He may then choose to either spend the money himself and upgrade his system or pay you, or go to some other company who are willing to take the risk that Autodesk will turn a blind eye to using educational software for profit. You shouldn't be considering any other options, not as a company.

Do a quick Internet search. The steps for doing what I think you have in mind are readily available. We've had this debate several times over the years but I forget exactly what CADTutor's "official" response is. Should take you less than 30 seconds to pull up an answer.

In the future you might want to use a program like EDUSCAN by DotSoft.

"Searches a folder (and optional nested subfolders) for drawing files containing the Educational designation."

EDUSCAN.zip is free for the downloading at the DotSoft website. I've tested it and can confirm it works. There is no malware either with the download.

Without violating any terms of the EULA, what are some steps one could take to shorten the workload on something like this?

In the past, given a good enough story, your VAR (reseller) could get access to a tool to clean the drawings.

Not sure if that applies today, but it might be worth a try.

I like the suggestion from steven-g also, make the offender pay for it :-)

I seem to recall that saving the infected file as a dxf (probably one of the older dxfs such as 2000 or 2004) fixes it. I haven never tried it though so can't confirm it works.

Tell your customer that you cannot legally work with drawings supplied using educational software, and that you will have to redraw them @ whatever hourly rate you charge. He may then choose to either spend the money himself and upgrade his system or pay you, or go to some other company who are willing to take the risk that Autodesk will turn a blind eye to using educational software for profit. You shouldn't be considering any other options, not as a company.

My guess is that the client will go elsewhere.

My guess is that the client will go elsewhere.

It's not about having as many clients as you can get (with dodgy bussiness ethics I might add), it's about showing that you are a professional company that can be relied on. It all depends on what sort of reputation you are hoping to have (or keep).

CadTutor does not approve or condone the use of educational versions in the workplace.

Well I have some experience in this area. Back when I did store layouts for a certain doughnut company we had an Australian franchise submit plans for a store they wanted to build. I noticed that the plans had the edu stamp around the border. I immediately went to upper management and warned them about this and dealing with this other company.

I was all but laughed out of the door! They simply did not care one bit about it.

So to get to the point..."client will go elsewhere", you bet they will. If you are the owner of the business then yes you can make that call. If not the call will be made for you.

The old "save to r12 dxf" will work but it is far from a good solution which only creates other issues. Has anyone tried opening the file in Draftsight or DoubleCAD to see how the dwg is handled?

I don't condone using edu software for work but sometimes poop happens and you need to just fix it and move on if it is out of your control.

I'd put the onus back on the source of the file. To my knowledge there are two non-AutoCAD sanctioned methods of removing the stamp and only one sanctioned method.

Sure no harm in asking them about the file. It could be an honest mistake, it's possible. Download a block from the internet by a noob cad jockey that ignores the warning and there you go.

Has anyone tried opening the file in Draftsight or DoubleCAD to see how the dwg is handled?

NanoCAD doesn't print the 'edu' stamp but leaves the infection in the drawing. ProgeCAD removes the infection.

Interesting Paul, I wonder how those other dwg editors handled these types of files.

Thanks for sharing.

Can anyone share a simple edu file for some testing?

There is a few in Beginners section here. The one I tested was also from there.

Cool, I'll look.

Edit: Do you remember which one. I am striking out

.... I immediately went to upper management and warned them about this and dealing with this other company.

I was all but laughed out of the door! They simply did not care one bit about it.....

.

They better care about it. Both companies (source and destination) are putting their financial assets at serious risk. Any whistle-blower can gain what could be a substantial reward by turning them in.

Calculate your reward.

https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/usa/rewardsconditions.aspx

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7816091

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=1110741&siteID=123112

https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/add.aspx?src=us&ln=en-us

Sure you go ahead and risk your job and career in being a watchdog for AutoDesk. Hope that pans out and doesn't fly back in your face.

I reported it to company execs and did my part.

Cool, I'll look.

 

Edit: Do you remember which one. I am striking out

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?81414-Elective-civil-drafting-2-3

POST #18

It's not about having as many clients as you can get (with dodgy bussiness ethics I might add), it's about showing that you are a professional company that can be relied on. It all depends on what sort of reputation you are hoping to have (or keep).

No clients means no food on peoples tables...

I'd put the onus back on the source of the file. To my knowledge there are two non-AutoCAD sanctioned methods of removing the stamp and only one sanctioned method.

This is a good way of both absolving yourself and keeping the client happy. Simply ask the client to save the drawing down to a 2000 dxf file or to save it from ProgreCad [as these are the filetypes your software requires etc...], and just leave it at that without mentioning anything about the education stamp or why/how it got there.

They better care about it. Both companies (source and destination) are putting their financial assets at serious risk. Any whistle-blower can gain what could be a substantial reward by turning them in.

 

Calculate your reward.

https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/usa/rewardsconditions.aspx

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7816091

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=1110741&siteID=123112

 

https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/add.aspx?src=us&ln=en-us

Let us assume that the company (Company B) in the OPs post has a dozen or less AutoCad users. This is a reasonable assumption as major companies (in the US & Canada where this program exists) aren't going to use illegal software. So if the OPs company (Company A) dobbed them in, then after years of Court proceedings, Company B might be found guilty and have to pay 100K to Autodesk. In turn Autodesk then pays 5K to Company A. 5K is not much to a company and to have the matter hanging over their head and reputation for years.

Heck, even for most small clients, the professional fees Company A will lose when they refuse to do work for Company B would surmount to more than 5K normally.

Even if instead of Company A, it is Person A, an individual who got the 5K, well 5K won't last you long in the unemployment que etc as the CAD and engineering industry tends to be very small and well connected to each other...

Edit; I misread the table as well. It is only "Up to $5,000" reward, not a flat 5K etc. So it is even worse than what I was saying above.