HALOCAD FAQ

The user can protect engineering CAD models, drawings, technical documents and enforce data security across its entire life cycle.

We have development partnership with all major CAD/PLM vendors: Autodesk, PTC, Siemens, and Bentley Systems.

The FAQs provided by Microsoft on Azure can be found at the below links:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/information-protection/faqs
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/information-protection/faqs-infoprotect
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/information-protection/faqs-rms

• Leading manufacturer of semiconductor equipment’s in Europe
• Leading healthcare & scientific instrument manufacturer in Americas

The commonly used sensitive data in an Engineering/R&D are:

• CAD drawings
• PLM files
• Product design
• Digital drawings/Illustrations
• Prototypes

Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) or Active Directory Rights Management Service (ADRMS) should be available and active at the customer location.

Only authorized users who have valid credentials can access the encrypted CAD files and documents.

When an authorized supplier opens a protected CAD file, then the rights will be enforced based on the configuration provided in the Protection Label such as View, Edit, Print, Copy, Export, and so on.

The user can act upon the document based on one or more of the assigned privileges – view, edit, copy, print, or export.

Our DRM solution can enforce default label to the new CAD files based on organization policy and end user does not have to do anything.

HALOCAD uses the MIP SDK and the Microsoft authentication methods which are integrated there. This also includes the feature of caching the user credentials and triggering the re-authentication based on the period set in the Microsoft AD.

Only “Owner” of the protected file has rights to change the label and republish to the supplier.

Taking screenshots using Snipping Tool, PrtScr etc. can be prevented by disabling the copy access in the AIP labels.

If an unauthorized user tries to open the encrypted file, he will be prompted with an appropriate error message and cannot access the file.

When the user exports a CAD models or drawings into PDF format, our DRM solution encrypts the PDF file with the appropriate label as per organization policy.

Yes, we encrypt the CAD files using MIP SDK. Also, we retain the same file extension after encryption.

Azure administrator creates and manages the labels in the background. He can create profile, classification schema, classification rule, and action rule to manage the label assignment to different users in the organization.

Each label will have the details of user and corresponding rights in the Azure portal. All the rules to access the appropriate label are managed in the HALOCORE central server.

Currently, MIP label offers the following options for content expiry.

• On a specific date
• A number of days after label is applied

The tracking of protected CAD files and documents is possible using Azure analytics and audit logs.

Microsoft provides a standard guide on how to manage and control the policies in Azure portal and organizations can train their users.

The user in the partner or supplier organization can have “View only” access to the encrypted files if there is no MIP or ADRMS. This is possible using the free standalone Add-on “HALOCAD Reader” to view the file and the reader can be downloaded from Microsoft Appstore.

The HALOCAD Add-ons are developed and configured using the CAD specific APIs to make them compatible with the different CAD applications. Hence, we have separate Add-ons for each of the CAD applications – AutoCAD, Inventor, Creo, NX, Solid Edge, or MicroStation.

Our DRM solution enables outsourced data to be access controlled based on a specified duration. The outsourcing manager in the parent organization can enforce data access expiration e.g. 2 weeks for the designated supplier, monitor the progress and extend the access duration as needed.

The user will get an error message that he or she does not have permission to open this document because it has crossed the expiry date.

Our DRM solution enables data access definition when there is no internet or network connection through appropriate rule definitions in the Microsoft Azure layer.

Contact your MIP administrator and request a modification or a new label. See Learn about sensitivity labels – Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs.

Usually this is decided by the engineering managers. The labels provided by MIP for office documents (Confidential, Top Secret, General, Read Only) may be adequate. Engineering projects might need their own specific labels.

No, at this time, the sensitivity labels for HALOCAD are solely managed by MIP.

If your sign-on user is the owner of the drawing, you may change it by selecting a new label from the HALOCAD dropdown. If your user is not the owner, you must contact the original owner and request the change.

Watermarking is a function of each CAD system and HALOCAD does not modify drawings itself, this is not available at this time. This is under consideration for future development.

Yes, this would be assigned by the MIP administrator.

Use a label that has an assigned expiration date (example 3 Months) The expiration date must set for a label – for example, Confidential (expires in 3 Months) after which the file cannot be opened by anyone other than the owner.

Yes. There are two ways: For editing collaboration, install the HALOCAD plugin on the partner’s system, register their users with MIP, and obtain HALOCAD licenses for the users.

For read only collaboration, install the free Read-Only HALOCAD plugin on the partner’s system and register the users in MIP. No license from SECUDE is necessary.

Labels with print access disabled will provide this feature and labels with copy access disabled will restrict Prnt Scrn, Snipping tool and Microsoft supported tools.

When a user leaves the organization, all the user’s labels can be identified by the
Administrator and ownership changed to another active user. The associated models and drawings will continue to have the same privileges as before.

In case, if the user who is moving out is not the owner his user id needs to be removed from the security label.

Yes. The customers can experience different use cases of HALOCAD with our remote PoC environment on SECUDE Garden4You. SECUDE’s GARDEN4YOU is a remote standalone demo environment for performing a PoC with Microsoft Information Protection.

The PoC showcases the ability to handle sensitive data from SAP, CAD/PLM using SECUDE’s flagship products HALOCORE and HALOCAD respectively.

To know more and schedule a PoC, visit https://secudegarden4you.com

Here is the reference architecture of HALOCAD

We use Microsoft Azure Information Protection SDK for applying the encryption which use the algorithms compliant under FIPS 140-2.

HALOCAD uses IP Classification rules in PLM applications to apply labels for CAD models and drawings. For Native CAD applications default label can be enforced for new files based on meta data attributes.

While selecting and applying a label to a top-level CAD assembly file and if that file contains any of the dependent part/sub-assembly files the same label can be applied to all child components automatically.

Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) or Active Directory Rights Management Service (ADRMS) should be available and active at the customer location.

SECUDE offers a standalone HALOCAD Add-On for CAD applications to read the protected files by authorized users. So, this add-on needs to be installed for the partner / supplier CAD application to open the protected files.

It takes 1 day maximum to install HALOCAD Add-On for CAD applications and 3 days maximum to install the Add-on for PLM applications.

As already mentioned, HALOCAD is an Add-On implemented on CAD applications as well as on PLM. We also have a couple of server components, one for configuring the classification/action rules and the other which uses MIP SDK to apply the protection.

The following CAD applications are covered.

• AutoDesk Inventor/AutoCAD
• PTC Creo
• Siemens NX, Solid Edge
• Bentley MicroStation (Planned)
• Dassault CATIA, SolidWorks (Planned)

The following PLM applications are covered.

• PTC Windchill
• Siemens Teamcenter
• SAP PLM
• Bentley ProjectWise (Planned)
• Dassault Enovia (Planned)

HALOCAD has a standard practice of supporting (N-5) versions of the CAD or PLM applications under coverage. N – is the latest released software version in the market.

HALOCAD provides the protection feature based on Microsoft Information Protection(MIP). So, almost all the features available within MIP protection will be supported. Currently, the user-defined custom labels provided within MIP is not supported.

The following file formats are supported

• AutoCAD – dwg, dxf
• Inventor – ipt, iam, idw, ipn
• Creo – asm, prt, mfg, drw, frm, lay, s2d
• NX – prt, jt
• SolidEdge – par, psm, asm, dft

We have both Perpetual and Subscription licensing model. For PLM users it will be Tier based pricing and for CAD users it will be user-based pricing.