# Is it possible to lock a drawing?



## oblio98 (Sep 28, 2003)

Someone asked me for one of my AutoCAD drawings. It is fairly large, and they want to open it on their PCs, crop out certain sections that they may need at the time, and print just those sections.

However, this is a fairly detailed drawing that took me a LONG time to create, and I don't want to just hand it over.

I can print to a .PDF using Adobe Acrobat, but this does not allow them to sculpt out a section. 

It is possible to do what I want to do, or do I just have to give them the drawing file?

THANKS


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

Couldn't you just...you know, make a backup copy?


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## 40sondacurb (Jan 14, 2005)

you know you can make copies of files right?

Just open it and save as part 2


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## oblio98 (Sep 28, 2003)

The thing is, if I give them a copy, then they can modify it and make versions and changes that are not what I may want them to be able to do.

Is there such a thing as a "write-protected" or "read-only" copy? Maybe I am missing something, I am not really an AutoCAD guru, I just know enough about the program to create a flat, single layer drawing and that's about it.

:-jon


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

Well, the thing is, if you still have a copy on your machine, and they make a change- you still have the original on your PC. 

Or am I misunderstanding?


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

You can right-click their copy of the file and make it 'read-only' in the properties box, but I don't know if that will make it uneditable in AutoCAD. If they are going to be cropping and pulling sections out, they will need access to the file.

There's a 3rd party program CAD-Lock you might want to look at. The demo version is fully functional (they need to know the password to unlock the drawing) but they will need to have CAD-Lock as well.

www.cadlock.com/products/bro_cl_en.htm


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## Stu_computer (Jul 7, 2005)

Don't give them the DWG file!!!

You can make it a pdf file and they can zoom in then crop and print a section with the Graphics Select tool.

Or give them an image file (jpeg, gif, tiff, etc...)

CAD solutions 
Irfanview

Remember to add a watermark to the image or pdf.
.


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## oblio98 (Sep 28, 2003)

THANK YOU STU!! That's the answer I was looking for.

I would HATE to give them the DWG, as they would then not need ME!! 


:-jon


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