Topic: autodesk educational product removal

[David-d]

Hello
Need your help.
We have a lot of files with the problem autodesk educational product
Is there a script or Lisp that could solve this pressing problem ?.
Open the DWG files .. do PURGE  & audit and save in DXF files  and save agaib in DWG
Please help
David

[snownut2]

Oops,

From what I've heard you will need to reinstall any non-student autocad installation that opened one of the student acad files. In Autodesk's efforts to prevent  users from using student versions for anything other than just that all drawings from students will corrupt the next users version of
Autocad to also display the student version watermark.

I do not know of a method to remove the student watermark.

Seems someone just caused you a lot of money by introducing the student files into you workplace.

Do not send these files to any unsuspecting user as you will be causing them a lot of grief.

If there was a method to remove the student watermark, why would more people not be using the student version ?

The free educational versions are just what they are intended to be EDUCATIONAL ONLY.

Ps, I don't think you will get much help trying to circumvent AutoDesk's student security features.  (legal issues)

[ChrisCarlson]

Looks like ACAD 2014 SP1 addresses this issue

http://blog.jtbworld.com/2014/02/autocad-educational-version-plot-stamp.html

[snownut2]

Chris,

This is new.

I'm still leery of this though, seems AutoDesk could have a change of heart at anytime ;

Starting with the installation of SP1 for the 2014 products, files will no longer show the stamp when plotting, nor will they give a warning message when opening them. However, the stamp is still attached to the file even though it is not showing.

If they realized they made a mistake, and reverted to their old ways, the watermark would be there again.  How knows maybe they have disabled it for a brief period to see who may be in trouble when turned back on. (little conspiracy theory there)

[Matt__W]

I chose "a".   

[owenwengerd]

Autodesk provides a command line utility through your reseller to remove the EMR stamp.

[owenwengerd]

Another option just now available: DWG TrueView 2015.

[tedg]

The bigger question is why do all these files have the educational stamp on them?
If they were created by an educational product, then this thread is asking us to help you break the law.
 
If they were truely created by a commercial product, how did they all get infected?
If it was someone in your office screwing them up, I would take the cost to fix them out of thier pay, or make them fix them on thier own time to keep thier job...
 
Too harsh?
 

[cmwade77]

The bigger question is why do all these files have the educational stamp on them?
If they were created by an educational product, then this thread is asking us to help you break the law.
 
If they were truely created by a commercial product, how did they all get infected?
If it was someone in your office screwing them up, I would take the cost to fix them out of thier pay, or make them fix them on thier own time to keep thier job...
 
Too harsh?

First, at least in California (this is most likely true throughout the entire U.S. though), it would be illegal to take it out of their pay or make them fix it on their own time, even if they did this deliberately, which I doubt anyone did, considering how easy it is to get anyone infected. Now, if they did it deliberately, you could fire them and then sue for damages, but you can't just take it out of their pay without a court order. I only mention this because I have seen too many people jump on this idea and it can get companies into deep, deep trouble. For example in California, last I checked the penalty for doing this is 3 times what was taken out. Additionally, the last I checked in California, if a paycheck or any portion of it is late (not paid on the agreed upon date) (there are a few exceptions to this, but not many), the company must pay 8 hours per day that it is late, which is where the 8 hours per day comes from, if a person is salaried, then it is the equivalent of 8 hours, based off of a 40 hour work week (not including, holidays, vacation time and weekends). So, you can imagine that this could be a very costly mistake for a company to make and I would hate to see any company have to eat that kind of expense. So before considering doing something like this, always check your local labor laws.

That being said, it is actually very easy to get infected by the educational stamp, it is basically a virus. If you have a drawing with an Educational stamp on it, any other drawing that it touches in any way, shape or form, this includes, but is not limited to being xRefed in, being brought in as a block. If you have other drawings open and then open a drawing with an educational stamp, the other drawings will be infected if you save them. For this reason, I will not allow drawings with an Educational stamp to be saved to our server and the email that contains them is deleted immediately when we find out it's there, if it's on an FTP site all information for accessing that FTP site is deleted from all email accounts, etc. Yes, this might be overboard, but it's truly the only way to ensure that your other files do not get infected.

NOTE: AutoCAD 2014 SP1 (and presumably newer versions) does not do this, but I still won't allow drawings that I know to contain an educational stamp to be saved here, just to be safe.

[tedg]

First, at least in California (this is most likely true throughout the entire U.S. though), it would be illegal to take it out of their pay or make them fix it on their own time, even if they did this deliberately..

Yea, I figured as much, I was more ranting than being serious. I know you can't make someone work for nothing or take from thier pay. But if they aren't a good employee, something like this could be grounds for termination in some cases I would think.
 

That being said, it is actually very easy to get infected by the educational stamp, it is basically a virus. .... I will not allow drawings with an Educational stamp to be saved to our server and the email that contains them is deleted immediately when we find out it's there, if it's on an FTP site all information for accessing that FTP site is deleted from all email accounts, etc. Yes, this might be overboard, but it's truly the only way to ensure that your other files do not get infected.

Good to hear you have something in place to avoid this.
 
I have only seen this happen once where I work.. about 10 years ago, someone (an outside contractor) had sent us a landscape plan on an "educational version" drawing file, we rejected it and told them to send us a proper drawing which they did. We checked it out thoroughly first.

[Jeff H]

that makes 4 for "a"

[Matt__W]

that makes 4 for "a"

[tedg]

that makes 4 for "a"

Make that 5

[Keith™]

Under the FLSA, deductions for losses incurred by an employer out of negligence of an employee may be made to non-exempt employees only and the deductions cannot reduce an employees wages to less than minimum wage for any earning period. That being said, some states like California specifically restrict deductions for losses unless it can be shown that the employee was grossly negligent or intentionally cause the loss.

As far as the educational plot stamp is concerned, I have seen it propagate through an office like wildfire because one idiot inserted an educational block into a title block that was xref'd by thousands of drawings. Cleaning up the mess is a nightmare!

The simplest way to fix the issue is to batch process all of the drawings using the Autodesk utility .. but you had better be ready to explain how it got that way to begin with.

There are other ways, but in the interest of not spreading protected knowledge, I'll refrain from disclosing it.

[Bethrine]

NOTE: AutoCAD 2014 SP1 (and presumably newer versions) does not do this, but I still won't allow drawings that I know to contain an educational stamp to be saved here, just to be safe.

Is the plot stamp problem solved by 2014 or is it just lurking hidden in the background?

I ask because we just upgraded to '14 and happen to have one drawing (that we're aware of) with that pesky stamp. When same drawing is opened in '14, the stamp is nowhere to be found, drawing to final print. We have done nothing to change it's appearance, or lack thereof, so I am a bit concerned. 

Added:
Found this:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2013-2014/ACAD-2014-and-Educational-Version-plot-stamp/td-p/4614319/page/3

[Bethrine]

Yikes!

[dgorsman]

The 2014 releases just hide the marker - the data is still present.  if the same file is worked on with a pre-2014 release the stamp will print again.  Normally I approve of moving forward in half-steps (presumably the next step will include tools to remove the EDU data in the professional/paid for packages, or a cloud-based utility) to get things right before plowing onwards and upwards, but in this particular case that half-step can leave the user groping blindly in the dark.

[snownut2]

Yikes!

You seem surprised, best to steer clear of the educational plans.  Why would any employer have educational cad generated plans at all.  Autocad is very diligent at making sure they collect every dime they have coming from the use of their software.  They offer the FREE educational products to get students hooked on their product to ensure that when those students later hit the work place they make sure the employers purchase AutoCAD. (very smart marketing move)  Because of this they also have to be very diligent in making sure the educational products are not used in any way for commercial purposes (undermining their marketing strategy). 

You can draw your own conclusions on just what type of employer may seek to make use of the educational products and resultant product. (if they are not willing to pay for the cad program, did they pay for the resultant drafting work as well ?)

[Bethrine]

Yikes!

You seem surprised, best to steer clear of the educational plans.  Why would any employer have educational cad generated plans at all.  Autocad is very diligent at making sure they collect every dime they have coming from the use of their software.  They offer the FREE educational products to get students hooked on their product to ensure that when those students later hit the work place they make sure the employers purchase AutoCAD. (very smart marketing move)  Because of this they also have to be very diligent in making sure the educational products are not used in any way for commercial purposes (undermining their marketing strategy). 

You can draw your own conclusions on just what type of employer may seek to make use of the educational products and resultant product. (if they are not willing to pay for the cad program, did they pay for the resultant drafting work as well ?)

My company pays for the Autodesk suite. We receive drawings from outside vendors. I'm guessing that's probably where it came from. Maybe an intern somewhere or something? The student stamp propagation part of the policy didn't become known to me personally until I loaded an educational drawing up to the swamp many years ago and someone called me on it. (I was learning AutoCAD at home on a paid for student version for learning purposes back then.)

P.S. To whomever opened that drawing, my sincerest apologies and thank you for enlightening me!

[trogg]

I want to chime in about this as well.
We had a drafter/designer a few years ago that was transitioning into a position that required 3D CAD work. So he took night classes and used the current software as was required for the class on his personal computer. For his projects he tried to make use of the class and use meaningful examples that he could use at work as his class assignments...
One of those 3D blocks ended up in a few of our production drawings and it was a lesson learned.
I am grateful that with 2015 Trueview is now able to remove the educational plot for instances like this.
http://blog.jtbworld.com/2014/03/dwg-trueview-2015-can-remove.html

~Greg

[cmwade77]

NOTE: AutoCAD 2014 SP1 (and presumably newer versions) does not do this, but I still won't allow drawings that I know to contain an educational stamp to be saved here, just to be safe.

Is the plot stamp problem solved by 2014 or is it just lurking hidden in the background?

I ask because we just upgraded to '14 and happen to have one drawing (that we're aware of) with that pesky stamp. When same drawing is opened in '14, the stamp is nowhere to be found, drawing to final print. We have done nothing to change it's appearance, or lack thereof, so I am a bit concerned. 

Added:
Found this:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2013-2014/ACAD-2014-and-Educational-Version-plot-stamp/td-p/4614319/page/3

AutoCAD 2014 simply ignores the plot stamp, it still offers no way to remove it completely.

AutoCAD 2015 (and all variations) can remove the educational stamp by using DWGConvert and converting the drawings to a particular file format, just make sure you check something that will force some sort of change, such as purge drawings.

So the question now becomes given this new ease of removing the stamps, will Autodesk simply abandon the Educational Stamp all together? Who knows, but this certainly is making things easier on those of us who receive infected files from outside sources.

[dgorsman]

I'm somewhat surprised its in the free TrueView - I'd expected it to be in the paid-for products only.  It wouldn't surprise me if the previous in-your-face version was eventually replaced with something uses a full lock-out system which completely prevents EDU content from being used with non-EDU products.

[Keith™]

Yikes!

You seem surprised, best to steer clear of the educational plans.  Why would any employer have educational cad generated plans at all.  Autocad is very diligent at making sure they collect every dime they have coming from the use of their software.  They offer the FREE educational products to get students hooked on their product to ensure that when those students later hit the work place they make sure the employers purchase AutoCAD. (very smart marketing move)  Because of this they also have to be very diligent in making sure the educational products are not used in any way for commercial purposes (undermining their marketing strategy). 

You can draw your own conclusions on just what type of employer may seek to make use of the educational products and resultant product. (if they are not willing to pay for the cad program, did they pay for the resultant drafting work as well ?)

The biggest problem with plot stamps facing organizations today is that for many years it has been commonplace for people to create all manner of blocks and share them on the internet. A pre A2k14 user would be notified when they went to insert a block that it was an educational drawing. When that notification went away in 2014, it opened the doors wide open for the infection of the educational plot stamp.

All of the posturing I see on the web where people say "you knew better than to use an educational product" is misplaced. It is entirely plausible and even probable that without the notification, a great many more drawings will get that dreaded infection while the victim's only fault was to trust drawings downloaded from the internet.

That is part of the reason I used to make sure none of the drawings I downloaded were EDU infected, and if they were, I would get them fixed before using them.

[Bethrine]

Okay, "A" student (or their school) pays for the educational part of it (and there IS a learning curve).

"A" company paid for the professional version. This company also pays this student for their work in some way, be it monetarily or in experience. Has the company not paid for the right to use any drawing it wishes once it hits their paid for version?

I would think there should, at the very least, be some sort of way to collaborate between, say, intern and internship,  considering it is not uncommon for students to take work home with them for extra study or school projects to work on a thumb drive for nothing other than an educated opinion at work in order to get a better grade in a class.

Just thoughts on my mind.  :ugly:

[dgorsman]

That's way open to abuse though.  Company 'A' has all of its employees working from home, with no licenses while everybody at home uses their free educational license.  Zero company expense.  I don't particularly care for the concept of a race to the bottom - that leads to bad things like bridges falling over and sour gas leaks.   

[Matt__W]

You're still talking about this?   

[Bethrine]

How about this:

Instead of a student product, how about a student license? i.e. A student would pay for a 16 week period of use (a semester) after which the program expires (price being generally equivalent to text books). This students use would be unlimited allowing for Internship use as well. There could also be a limit on how many of these you can get before you are no longer eligible, say 6 (for an Associates degree with a couple bad semesters).

and/or

It could also be advertised as a "start-up company" price with specific qualifications like less than 2 years old, no more than a certain number of employees, gross profit of less than a certain amount. In which case maybe make it a yearly student / new business license. This would make Autodesk look good too.

[Bethrine]

You're still talking about this?   

You're still reading it? 

[Matt__W]

You're still talking about this?   

You're still reading it? 

No.  I just noticed the page count is going up.