PaulS00 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 (edited) Hello, As the CAD Standards Supervisor for my company, I'm trying to find a way to password protect the drawing template that I've spent hundreds of hours developing. Any ideas? Thanks! Edited October 16, 2012 by PaulS00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I don't think there is a way to password protect a template. Even if there was, to open the template the CAD tech would have to know the password. Self-defeating. Does Civil have the Standards Checker feature? Maybe that could be used to keep everyone in line or the threat of a good caning might work just as effectively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulS00 Posted September 25, 2012 Author Share Posted September 25, 2012 (edited) I haven't educated myself on the Standards Checker feature. Edited October 16, 2012 by PaulS00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Why is it always the boss' son? Darn! I'd look into the Standards Checker first if the feature is available. Maybe someone else here knows of a way to tamper-proof your template and will come along and educate us both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Keep your original template in a safe place, every night (or more often) have a routine copy the original into the template folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSasu Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 How about storing the templates into a network folder set as read-only for all users except you and pointing all workstations (in Options) to read the templates from that particular location? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Roy Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 How about storing the templates into a network folder set as read-only for all users except you and pointing all workstations (in Options) to read the templates from that particular location? That's exactly how I've done it and it works perfectly! My lisps also reset the template path each time the users open AutoCAD in case they take it upon themselves to try to change it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I haven't educated myself on the Standards Checker feature. In regards to canning, the draftsman whom I don't trust the most is the boss' son. I think it was a good caning, not canning. Everybody would stand in line to cane every boss' son I have ever worked with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Spare the rod and spoil the draftsman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadgad Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Lots of good ideas here. I particularly like rkent's and Mircea's. I was thinking REACTORS to automagically restore anything that gets changed, but if it is on the network and unauthorized users are read only, that shouldn't be much of a problem. I do like the suggestion Lee Roy made about resetting the path every time the program opens too. Standards checker is also very useful for ensuring that things are sanitized during a final pre-issue check. Be careful caning the owner's son, could get you canned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Lots of good ideas here.I particularly like rkent's and Mircea's. I was thinking REACTORS to automagically restore anything that gets changed, but if it is on the network and unauthorized users are read only, that shouldn't be much of a problem. I do like the suggestion Lee Roy made about resetting the path every time the program opens too. Standards checker is also very useful for ensuring that things are sanitized during a final pre-issue check. Be careful caning the owner's son, could get you canned. It woulda been worth it, every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadgad Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 It woulda been worth it, every time. I didn't mean to imply that it wouldn't, just suggesting due diligence is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomhamlet Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I have just got done doing the same for my company. They were having problems where the drafters would start off using the template, this would give them the layers, dimstyles, text styles, and options that the company has set to standard. However drafters would make their own layers and styles making the drawing not to standards. I have now fixed this problem in my company. The solution is a "standards" file, or a dws. The dws will let you keep your drafters get as creative as they want, and will always bring the drawing back to standard layers and styles. The easiest way to do this if you already have a template is to open it and save it as a .dws* file. When a drawing is complete, the employee will simply attach the file by typing the commad STANDARDS. From here he will select the file using the + button. When the file is in the box, the employee would than hit the CHECK STANDARDS button. This will tell you what is wrong, how you will fix, and what properties will be changed. For example, if your company has a standard layer named DIMENSION and your employee changes it to Dim. The first box will tell you that DIM is not a standard layer name, in the second box it will ask you which layer to make it. Once you choose DIMENSION, the third box will show the properties that the layer DIM will be changed to. Then hit FIX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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