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Client wants DWG files...


sonnyamorales

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Didn't some company come up with a program (lisp, VBA, C++?) that can effectively lock a drawing so basically all one can do with it is view/print it? Maybe it was DotSoft or ManuSoft? I can't recall at the moment.

 

Seems TF abandoned the debate. I think his throat was scratchy.

 

Yes, I remember someone posting a drawing challenging everyone to try to edit it. Most could not but some found a way to do it.

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Didn't some company come up with a program (lisp, VBA, C++?) that can effectively lock a drawing so basically all one can do with it is view/print it? Maybe it was DotSoft or ManuSoft? I can't recall at the moment.

 

Seems TF abandoned the debate. I think his throat was scratchy.

Again, the client is asking for a DWG file for the sole reason of authoring capabilities. Why send them a DWG "locked"? That's even worse than sending someone a PDF. I guess at 40k years old logic just disappears lol
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Tanner, I think you are just jealous of the wealth of information I have accumulated over the years. You should be so wise.

 

Any how, it wasn't DotSoft or Manusoft it was a company called AutoDWG and if you want to know more about their program called DWGLock click on the link below. It merely protects the drawing from being modified.

 

http://www.autodwg.com/dwglock/

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The first thing said in the "Why need this software" section:

 

Keep others away from your drawing files

 

I'd like to see how it does that.

 

With statements like that and other glaring grammar errors, I would install anything from that company without some thorough investigation.

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Don't shoot the messenger; I just find this stuff. What people do with it after that is entirely up to them. Not my problem man. LoL

 

I have a beautifully written lisp program that comes from a Russian. I can barely understand his "English" explanation of how to use it but it works. Who am I to complain?

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Use Xrefs, and one can always print as pdf an import as underlay and save a dwg and send it to client.

 

Just another tough of mine lol

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I would just send the GA's in a format that they can't rescale, we have the same problem with tender drawings we submit, next thing you see is some random company sending us our own designs for a quote..

I save dwg to PDF then to jpeg or the like then back to PDF if requested so they can't convert and scale.

 

Gazza

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We send our CAD files fairly often to other engineering firms we are working with as well as to the firms we are working with. We will typically delete all of our notes and details and ONLY send them the plans themselves. The most that can be taken from that is your block library, most of our work we don't want to give away is in the details.

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....most of our work we don't want to give away is in the details.
Is all of your details 100% generated from scratch from your company alone?
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Is your company legally contracted to send DWG files? If so not much you can do about it. If not then you don't have to.

 

THAT is the only real answer here. ^^^

 

OP - what does the contract say? This should have been figured out and agreed upon long before any drawings were produced.

 

As a side note, there is a pretty good trick for essentially exploding the contents of a DWG to where every single thing is a tiny line segment.

Then you could technically send them a DWG and it would be of little use, but is this really what you want to do?

 

He should have thought of that before accepting the project. If you don't trust the client, don't work for them.

 

^^^ That is another good point

Edited by rkmcswain
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I agree RK, these things should be brought up front before any work is ever done.

Good idea on exploding all content before sending any files out.

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Manipulate what exactly? What harm can that do? They're not the ones submitting a sign and sealed set so it doesn't really matter. It's for their internal use only.

 

The only time your boss' hesitations become valid is if they have direct access to the DWG files on your company's internal domain network. THAT'S when it becomes an issue and I'm pretty sure that's not happening.

 

If you get out of your US centric bubble you will see that a lot of countries do not have a PE stamp system or similar stamp/seal system.

 

The OPs boss is right to be concerned in my opinion. If the OP must give the files to the client, then I would recommend sanitising them first. That is, exploding everything in the drawing, making it all on later 0 and generally 'trashing' (the copy of) the drawing essentially so unless it was agreed to give them the good CAD file prior, it makes it harder for them to piggyback off of your work; there are exceptions to this always though.

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#3 - If they contracted your company then why are they not allowed to take what's rightfully theirs? They're paying your company for services but... oh wait... they can't have "my" CAD file? Ridiculous. It's "their" CAD file because they paid for it unless that was contractually defined prior to signatures landing on paperwork.

 

Rubbish. It depends what the contract says.

 

The standard contract we use (which clients must agree to and sign before we commence work) specifically states that all CAD files and design belongs to us. The exception to this is if special CAD requirements have been specifically worked into the contract.

 

Now, what happens in reality does not always follow what our contract says [we are too nice]. If one of our good clients or another consulting company we are on good terms with wants out CAD file we will usually give it to them for free (after stripping out our titleblock etc first). However, on jobs where we have down all the preliminary engineering and then the client chooses to take the job to a rival consultant (as happened last week) we are not on good terms with for the detailed engineering design then we will not give them all our CAD data (they do get PDF copies of our design though). Another job recently we charged the client another 5 figure sum for minor amendments to CAD files we had produced several years earlier; now this client (a government organisation) could get the work done cheaper elsewhere although without our CAD files it would ultimately cost them a lot more. You need to realise just how valuable ownership of the CAD files are and that unless the contract dictates, they do not belong to the client.

 

In mot companies I've worked for if you were a CAD operator and had the attitude to giving out CAD files as you have shown here without first seeking approval from a principal then you would be out the door quickly.

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Oh yes it does. It's "automatically" theirs unless the hired party says otherwise and it's signed off by the paying party. Any entity that pays money for a design file should have the right to own, store and protect that design file if they paid for it. What happens if the original company goes under? Or if they didn't properly archive and protect the original authoring files? What then, if years later those authoring files are needed for future expansion or ANY reason?

 

How is that even considered the correct way of doing things? Boggles my mind...

 

Nope. They pay for a paper design unless specifically mentioned otherwise. If we have to provide digital files or digital construction data or anything else then it had better be in the contract or they will have to agree to a variation and pay additional for it.

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I have removed unecessary posts from this thread. The question seems to be answered, over and over again, as it has in other threads. Unless you have more information to give the OP I suggest that this conversation is closed.

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