Expert: Bob - 7/13/2005

Question
I've got from an architect a file and when I am opening with my autocad light 2005  I got an icon “PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT', and continue to open.the problem I have now is: when I am ploting the file has the above statement on the frame and I can not get rid of it.
If copy and paste from this file anything else it will corrupt the new file too.


Answer
Hi - I am sorry, but there is nothing you can do about this.
Frankly, it is hard to believe an architect is foolish enough to pass along a file that creates the icon and plot stamp. (unless he has some illegal software to remove them).These are the safeguards Autodesk uses to keep student software from being used for commercial purposes.

If you have a legitimate copy of AutoCAD, and you used, say, a block from his file in yours, you might be able to get Autodesk to clean the file, but you would probably have to report the architect.

Once in a while, I read of a case where an architect unwittingly used a block that his employee or someone else had created in Student software -- that block puts the stamp on the whole new file. Ask the architect to solve it-- I am sure he would rather not get into a legal mess, and, if you use the file, you might have a legal problem, too. (if he has an old release of AutoCAD, he wont get the warning on opening the drawing,  which started with 2005, I believe, just the plot stamp)

Bob