

BURST is an express tool that can keep attribute value after you explode a block. Not many people know anonymous block (But if they read this, now they know) and they will need some time to find out how to explode it.You probably already know about BURST command. But it works in most cases, and it’s free. Hint: Use QSELECT or FILTER to select only blocks. Even if they can explode the anonymous block, the drawing will be practically useless. Exploding all objects before you run the routine probably will be better. It means other people can insert your blocks with INSERT command and use it. If you don’t want them to use your block, explode all your blocks before you run the routine. This routine will not touch your existing block in your drawing. So make sure you don’t run it on the original file. Running WAI-LOCKALL will make your entire drawing as an anonymous block. Make a copy of your DWG file, then open the copy. There are 3 LISPs that you can use, but it seems that the only one that works is WAI-LOCKALL. WAI-LOCK and WAI-LOCKEACH don’t appear to work, probably because they were created for the old version of AutoCAD. WAI engineering provided free LISP routines that you can download. Go to and click the Freebies link in the left sidebar. Only LISP program can create it. Don’t worry you don’t have to build it by yourself. We can’t create anonymous block directly within the drawing area. Certainly there is some workaround, but this is much better than nothing. You can’t explode anonymous block or insert it into your drawing.

The easiest way is to make your whole drawing as an anonymous block. There is some workaround available to make it less easy for people to steal your work. AutoCAD 2016 doesn’t even provide password protection anymore. Unfortunately, there are no features in AutoCAD that can protect your drawing. We need to figure out how to protect our DWG before sending it. However, sometimes the requirement is DWG. But they can’t modify it or use the drawing for their design. These file formats can be reviewed and people can add markup/redlining if necessary. The standard practice is to share our drawing in PDF or DWF format. At least, we don’t want to make it easy for them. When it comes to AutoCAD drawing, the question is how we can protect our drawing and don’t let people take what’s inside. It’s common that people want to protect their intellectual property.
