Educational stamp issues

[mcguire_chuck_t]

I have not been up on the threads in over 18 months due to the layoffs of 2003. I just wanted to ask if anyone has run into this educational stamp issue inside of commercial users cad files causing the educational stamp to be printed. I have been reading Auto-desk's file library and have concluded that if anyone uses educational version software and brings their files into any regular design business, that they infect all drawings that uses their files to print the educational plot stamp.
My findings so far are that all those files must be deleted and purged to make the stamp go away. Is this about it?

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Check out the following Technical Document on the AutoDesk web site under the Knowledge Base section...

ID: TS63668 - For Educational Use Only plot stamp

+


Below snippet comes from an AutoCAD 2004 review...

[snip]
You now get a warning before opening a drawing created or "infected" by a Education version. This is also true for commands like insert and pasteclip.
[/snip]

Have a good one, Mike

[mcguire_chuck_t]

Hi Mike,
Sounds like a fixer. The problem I have been seeing with some of the drawings in-house effected is that the file sizes are large and apparently there is a block that was drawn using the educational version. I believe your method will work. I will try it later this week whenever I go back to the other office in Sanford that is having these problems.
Thanks a bunch for the tips and everything.

[Steve Johnson]

You can apply to your AutoCAD dealer for a special utility, time-limited to 15 days, to fix up your drawings. There is also a DOS utility you can use to identify the "infected" drawings. Presumably, if you get sent more of these drawings in the future, you need to go on bended knee again and beg for another 15 days of utility use. According to my dealer, there is just one guy in the depths of Autodesk who knows the closely guarded secret rituals of the educational stamp.

I'm not sure what the rationale is behind the secrecy, because anyone with one of these drawings, a modicum of curiosity, and 5 minutes to spare can work out what you need to do to clean it up. Just save the drawing in "one of AutoCAD's export formats", open and re-save it in DWG format. You don't need to go back to earlier versions, and you can even save as a binary "one of AutoCAD's export formats" to produce a compact file and avoid any loss of precision.

Autodesk has locked the door to a house, with great restrictions on who is allowed to borrow the key. Meanwhile, there's a whole wall missing from the side of the house so people can walk in and out of as they please.

[dploof]

Funny, I had just read the AUGI News Letter, and was reading some of the years best Eureka moments. One was how someone was able to defeat the Educational Only Plot stamp. Well wouldn't you know, someone from one of our branch offices called me up with that exact problem. He had inserted a block that was created in the educational version.

After reading this forum, we used: DXFOUT on the infected drawing, and DXFIN to bring the resulting .dxf file into a new drawing.

Boy this is as protective as encrypted AutoLisp.

Thanks for the help.

[CADKitty]

We got hit hard by the educational plot stamp last year...wound up with probably about 100 "infected" drawings...took us two days to figure out all we had to do was save down to v14...yup, biiiig secret...

Now, what we did to the architect that us the original "infected" drawings...well, that IS a secret....

[eovf]

Our experience here is somehow a bit strange:

We are a public education instution and was liecensed to use education version of AutoCAD 2008 for yrs, and there was no such "education stamp" being shown in any of dwg plotted from file created by ourselves.

However, recently we engaged a consultant for certain kind of works, and they are equipped with a valid commercial version fo AutoCAD. It was noted that some of the dwg file created by them (from commercial license) when being plotted in our machine (using educational cad software), that education stamp will come out...and cannot be erased.

THe consulant is blaming that we are infecting their dwg and refuse to rectifiy for us. But in fact we do nothing other than open and plot...not even with a save....

Is this the intention of AutoDesk to prevent licensed user communicating CAD file which do not violate the license requirements? (we employed a consutant to carry out edcational duties, and they use valid licensed copy of autocad as well,just the problem is we need to have their dwg get print in our office...)

[sandeep_koodal]

save as the dwg to dxf then save as dxf to dwg
We are doing the trick when a drawing coming with educational plot stamp
Try Try Try Try

[rkmcswain]

save as the dwg to dxf then save as dxf to dwg
We are doing the trick when a drawing coming with educational plot stamp

This was already mentioned, over 4 years ago, in this thread.....also, if you do choose this "solution", keep in mind that you are going to lose anything that doesn't translate properly to/from DXF.