mwg
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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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Not sure if this come under intellectual property rights or not.
Basically at work we produce our drawings using AutoCAD, for those not familiar with that program it saves them in a .dwg format. We don't normally send out a .dwg, we send it as a PDF. Unless it is the Architect who needs our drawings in a format he can add his stuff to and vice versa.
There's a client at the moment that's saying he wants a .dwg version of his drawings. Knowing what this particular guy is like we are reluctant to send them to him as he is the sort of person that would then use our designs to give to someone else to do the job cheaper or something along those lines.
But he is the client and has paid us to produce the drawings for him so obviously expects to have full access to everything in what ever format he wants. He isn't happy with just receiving a PDF version and a paper copy.
Only way that I've thought of getting around it is to make the whole drawing an unexplodable block. He couldn't much with it then but he could still trace over it and if he was really determined there are ways around it...
Just got me thinking really as to what we can do in the future to protect ourselves from having our designs ripped by someone else? It's kind of a question to do with what can we do from a software and file point of view and kind of a legalities question? Thought geek day was the most appropriate anyway.
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sc0ott
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Registered: 16th Feb 09
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What kind of drawings do you do and who is your client?
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nathy_87
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Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: West Mids. Drives: Škoda Fabia VRS 5J
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Yeah, it s a bit hit & miss sending .dwg files out. Can't understand why he'd want them tbh, I'm always sketchy about sending .dwg's out but if that's what the client wants that's what we've got to send.
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mwg
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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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Structural drawings for buildings. Drainage systems, bridges, hydro electric schemes. All sorts of stuff.
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Neo
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Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
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Something like http://www.autodwg.com/dwglock/ or http://www.cadlock.com/ not help ?
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mwg
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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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quote:
Originally posted by Neo
Something like http://www.autodwg.com/dwglock/ or http://www.cadlock.com/ not help ?
I did a search before and they came up. It's basically making the drawing in to a block that can't be exploded. You can still add your own lines, text and trace over them.
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mwg
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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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quote:
Originally posted by nathy_87
Yeah, it s a bit hit & miss sending .dwg files out. Can't understand why he'd want them tbh, I'm always sketchy about sending .dwg's out but if that's what the client wants that's what we've got to send.
99% of the time clients don't want them. This particular client is a sly sod, we've done work for him before and seen him screw other people over so him asking for the dwg files just makes me even more suspicious of him.
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nathy_87
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Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: West Mids. Drives: Škoda Fabia VRS 5J
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can you PM the client?
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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quote:
Originally posted by mwg
But he is the client and has paid us to produce the drawings for him so obviously expects to have full access to everything in what ever format he wants.
Exactly.
We have to send native and PDF of everything produced, can't see the problem, it's only drawings of their stuff.
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sc0ott
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Registered: 16th Feb 09
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Dont see their being a problem if you keep a good record of whats being issued etc.
We appoint external engineers, m&e, architects etc and they have no problem issuing the dwg files. Normally its pdf because of the amount of pissing about with xrefs.
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Things like this should be laid out in the terms before even undertaking the work tbh. I really can't see a problem tho since he's the one paying for the man hours in producing said work.
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mwg
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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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Yep I can see that in this case, nothing we can do. Should write it in to the terms. It just got me thinking about if there is anything in the future we could do.
Pretty sure a couple of years ago we had someone take our design and do it cheaper. But its hard to prove it.
[Edited on 02-11-2011 by mwg]
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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quote:
Originally posted by mwg
Pretty sure a couple of years ago we had someone take our design and do it cheaper. But its hard to prove it.
Well that should've been a case for court I would've thought? I'll find out if there's a way to achieve what you want anyway.
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mwg
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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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I'd think so. I'm just the man on the ground that gets asked questions like how we can protect our AutoCAD drawings, so don't know if the directors ever did anything about that. Like I say it just got me thinking as to what we could do 
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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If he's paid you for drawings and drawings only, surely the client can do what they like with them?
Either way, wouldn't exporting them in DXF format help as he'd have to import them back in a faff about with all the dimensions.
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Simon
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Registered: 24th Apr 03
Location: Oxfordshire
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If he's paid you in full for the work then really you can't really do much else than let him have the drawings. As long as you keep track of what you have sent him in what revisions then it shouldn't come back against you. We've had instances where we have taken on another architects work and had to phone them up for the drawings, they are always reluctant to give them out but then we are the same when it happens to us. Not really anything you can do unless like said you have something particular in your terms and contract
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Rob E
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Registered: 1st Jan 06
Location: Madeley, Stafford....I want to live back in Wales!
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Can you not write up some disclaimer saying that the drawings remain property of your company and are under no circumstances to be modified, loaned or used without your permission?
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Simon
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Registered: 24th Apr 03
Location: Oxfordshire
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You could put anything you like into a contract, terms or disclaimer but it's potentially going to put people off using you if they are clued up on anything and read things like that
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Daveskater
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Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
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Put something to do with copyright on the Defpoints layer, iirc you can't directly select stuff on that layer so he'll probably be confused as to why it can't be removed 
Even with an unexplodable block, it would be easy enough to copy everything out from the block editor and paste it back into model space, so that won't really get you anywhere. Or like you said, it can still be traced over.
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
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