Applying Digital Signatures for Authentication

You can associate digital signatures to drawing files for authentication.

To sign drawing files, you must have purchased a signature certificate from a service of a reliable Certificate Authority (CA):

• Reliable digital certificate providers meet requirements for safe digital signing.

• The CA issues a PFX file and a password to register in a certificate store.

• You need to install a root CA certificate as trusted.

• Class 3 of digital signatures is required.

A digital signature is a block of encrypted information attached to a file to electronically identify the originator.

A digital signature also securely indicates whether a file has been modified since the digital signature was applied.

Each drawing can have only one signature.

Note: A digital signature of a drawing file will become invalid if the file was modified after you signed it for authentication. Renaming a drawing file does not invalidate its digital signature.

You can sign drawing files, verify the authentication, and remove your signatures.

This section disusses:

• Signing Drawing Files for Authentication

• Verifying a Digital Signature in a Drawing

• Removing a Digital Signature from a Drawing