PDF's and Locking Layers

From a question posed by a customer:

Question: Is there a way to lock and password protect drawing layers so I can email them to someone and them not be able to change the drawing. Also is there a easy and preferably “free” way to make a drawing into a pdf. I use primopdf for making calcs or lists into pdf’s but I haven’t figured a way to make a large document sheet pdf with that program.

Answer: In AutoCAD 2007 and newer you can Plot to a PDF in the plot command, Choose the DWG to PDF driver

Answer #2: The best way to protect layers is to print a DWF of the drawing. You can then choose what abilities to edit the user has.

Comments

[Arthur Dove]

From Joe Oliver:

"I have used (and still use at home for different things) CutePDF for most of my .pdf needs. It'll work with CAD, Office Suite software, Calcs, Stocklists, etc. I have not noticed an real problems with those common applications and the .pdf files produced seem to be good quality."