Using DWG Convert to identify drawings that contain content from an Educational version

If you have received files from somewhere that were created in an Educational version of an AutoCAD based product, or contain content from an Educational version, these files will display a plotstamp when printed saying "PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT".

More Information can be found here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS17886605

Any affected file will display two warning messages when it is opened in AutoCAD, as shown in more detail in this blog post on the "Up & Ready" blog.

However, in some situations you may want to be able to check multiple "suspected" files in one go, without having to open each individual file, to identify which drawing files are "clean" and which are the ones that contain content from an Educational version.

The DWG Convert tool (included in AutoCAD 2012 and in DWG Trueview)
can help you identify the affected files.

In DWG Trueview, you can find it in the Application Menu directly under the "Open" button:

In AutoCAD 2012, the tool can be found under Application Menu > Save As > DWG Convert

 

Or you can just type in the DWGCONVERT command:

 

In the DWG Convert dialog, click the "Add files" button to add all the files you want to check:

 

Once you have added the files, decide which Conversion Setup to use. If you are only checking for files with Educational content, this should not matter much, but just make sure to select a conversion setup that does not overwrite the original files. The "Standard" setup should do fine, since this by default will add the converted files to a new ZIP file, and prompt you to specify a location for this file.

 
Next, click the "Convert button" and if there are any files that include Educational content, DWG Convert will give a warning dialog that lists the files that cannot be converted:

 

You can leave it at that, take note of paths and names of the affected files, and click cancel - or you can click "Continue", in which case the conversion will proceed and you will be given a report at the end that also lists all the affected files and their locations: