Topic: autodesk educational product removal

[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.