menu and lisp file protection

I have been asked by my office manager to develop a menu, lisp files and standard blocks for use in our office. At present i have a couple of standard pull down menus which insert blocks and run various lisp routines. What i want to know is
1. what is the best way to protect this from manipulation by other cad operators
2. can all the lisp routines be placed into one file that can be protected from changes by operators with alittle knowledge
3. is there any way of setting this up so that it will only run on designated computers. i had thought of serial no checking is this feasible.
would greatly appreciate some feedback on this
regards John b (australia)

 

standard blocks for use in our office. At present i have a couple of
standard pull down menus which insert blocks and run various lisp routines.
What i want to know is

operators

Not sure about best. But you can compile lsp file into fas or vlx file.

from changes by operators with alittle knowledge

Yes. Copy contents of all lisp files into one lsp file and compile it.

designated computers. i had thought of serial no checking is this feasible.

You can try using: (GETVAR "LOGINNAME") or (GETENV "COMPUTERNAME")

 

There has been quite a few similar topics to this one posted lately.
1. I suppose it all depends in the level of security you want to go to.
Basic level would be making the folder read-only to CAD Users and writable to you. Another option is to compile the code.
2. You can place as many lisp routines in one file as you like.
3. If you are using DOSLIB (free from Mcneel.com) you could check the MAC ADDRESSES (assuming network present) using (dos_macaddress). You might also do a few searches in this discussion group.

Dean

 

is it just a matter of selcting all lisp files and pushing abutton so to speak as i am not sure how to do it. any cluses would be helpful.
Once compiled how do i load them. do i just load the compiled file through acad.lsp so they are available when called

 

I solved it this way:
- compiled all lisp files seperatly, all are loaded seperatly, and placed
them into a folder wich is accessible by the cad-operators.
- compiled the menu and made this available into a separate folder.
I keep all the original files on the server in a folder accessible only by
me and the boss.

Up until now no problem.

If you want to be really sure, you could compile your lisp-dcl file into an
fas file, it's even more safe as just encrypt.
You can never be 100% secure, if you have people who can code files, there
wil be people who uncode it.

If you have a company license (flexmanager) you could use the autocad
license number to check if the correct program is running, possible is also
to check the "acadver" setvar on the version.

Jan

standard blocks for use in our office. At present i have a couple of
standard pull down menus which insert blocks and run various lisp routines.
What i want to know is

from changes by operators with alittle knowledge

designated computers. i had thought of serial no checking is this feasible.

 

I read on an AutoCAD forum on the web that there is a program to decompile
vlx files but the moderator deleted the link before posting the message so I
was not able to find out if the post was for real or not... as for the
loading on only certain comps... use the "loginname" var. like this (getvar
"loginname") just create a list of allowed users to check against and use
an "if" statement to loading on only the users in the list...

 

You can also delete the mnu and mns files as these are the files that can be changed. You can also protect your lisp files. There is no "sure" way of protecting everything against a determined adversary.

 

Acad serial number is (getvar "_pkser")

If you put the mnc/mnr files in a read-only folder the users can't change
them. But it also means they can't change any toolbar at all, and some will
be unhappy with this. Yes, the dummies might do more harm than good, but
it's a shame to discourage the smarter ones. My approachh to this is to give
everybody a blank partial "user" menu that they can modify, and tell them
they can do whatever they want, but ONLY in that menu.

For instance, to save they can make their own "favorite tools" toolbar by
dragging copies of buttons from the Acad toolbars onto their "user" toolbar.
Then they can display only their own faves and turn off the Acad toolbars.
But they can't change the Acad menu.

You can't absolutely protect anything, but if you make lisps and menus
interdependent, it gets much harder for anyone to steal a piece out of the
system. For instance, put all the lisp used by your custom menu in a
compiled lisp, loaded by the mnl file. Take "library" routines like
error-handlers, that a lot of lisps use, and put them in a compiled file
that's loaded on startup. Then the individual lisp won't run unless you also
have the "library" lisp.