Terms of service

These terms are an agreement between Adiabat (Pty) Ltd (“Adiabat”, “we”, “us”) and the organisation or person that uses DraftSolver or this website (“you”). You accept them when you apply for an account, accept them at sign-up or checkout, or use DraftSolver. If you accept them for an organisation, you confirm that you may bind it.

1. Definitions

• “DraftSolver” is Adiabat’s online application at app.adiabat.co.za, with its Handbook, its worked examples, its API and its documentation.
• “Plan” is a plan described on the plans page or in an order form: Pro, Expert, Enterprise, Data Centre, Academic (a research seat, a department licence, a teaching licence or a student seat), Project or Trial, with any add-ons.
• “Order” is a purchase of a plan, seats, add-ons or credits through Paddle’s checkout or invoices, or an order form signed by both parties.
• “Subscription term” is the period an order pays for.
• “User” is a person you allow to use DraftSolver under your plan; each holds one seat.
• “Customer data” is everything you or your users put into DraftSolver: cases, inputs, uploaded files, presets, tubes and fans.
• “Outputs” are what DraftSolver computes for you: results, datasheets, reports, curves, workbooks, exported cases and files.
• “Credits” are units of hosted CFD compute, described in clause 8.

2. What these terms cover

These terms govern your use of DraftSolver and of this website. If an order form signed by both parties says something different, the order form prevails for that order, except that it changes clauses 13, 15, 16 or 17 only where it names the clause it changes. Otherwise these terms prevail over anything on the website.

3. Accounts and applications

1. DraftSolver is offered to organisations and professionals, and on student seats to students of universities. Each application is read by a person, and we may decline one without giving a reason.
2. You must give accurate details, use a work email address, and keep them up to date.
3. You are responsible for your users, for keeping their sign-in details secret, and for everything done under their accounts. Tell us at once at admin@adiabat.co.za if you suspect that an account has been misused.
4. A Trial lasts 14 days for one seat after your application is accepted. It is for evaluating DraftSolver only. A Trial includes no credits. Its outputs are marked “TRIAL LICENCE - not for design use”, and they may not be used for design, for a bid, a guarantee or a test, or for any commercial purpose.

4. Your licence

1. While your subscription term lasts and you pay what an order requires, Adiabat grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence, without the right to sublicense, for your users to use DraftSolver for your own business purposes, within your plan’s seats, packs, features and credits.
2. Your business purposes include engineering work you do for your own clients. You may give them the outputs of that work under clause 10.
3. An Academic plan is for a university or another accredited institution of higher education, for teaching and non-commercial research. It is offered as a research seat, a department licence, a teaching licence and student seats, as the plans page describes, and its outputs are marked “not for commercial use”.
4. A Project licence covers one project for three months. The order names the project and the client it is for, and the licence may be used for that project alone.
5. An Academic plan may not be used for consulting, for work done for a third party for a fee, or for sponsored research. Research is sponsored when a company or a state-owned enterprise funds or commissions it in return for results, deliverables, a report, or rights in what the research produces, whether it pays the institution or a researcher. A bursary, a scholarship or a research grant that gives the funder none of these does not make research sponsored. Sponsored research needs a commercial seat (on Pro, Expert, Data Centre or Enterprise) or a Project licence for each person who does it.
6. A research seat is used by one member of the institution’s staff or one postgraduate researcher. A department licence covers the seats of the one department or research group that its order names, on the same terms as research seats.
7. A teaching licence covers a lecturer and the students of one course, for coursework and classes, for the length of the course and at most 12 months. It may not be used for research or for work that is published.
8. A student seat is for one student enrolled at the institution, for coursework and for a thesis or dissertation that is not sponsored research. The student’s supervisor or lecturer confirms the enrolment and the use. A student seat lasts 12 months and may be renewed while the student remains enrolled; it ends when the student leaves the institution.
9. We may ask for reasonable evidence that an Academic plan is eligible and used as this clause allows. Using it otherwise is a material breach under clause 20.2, and we may also charge the fees of the plan that the use required, for the time it was used so.

5. Seats and users

1. Each seat is used by one named person. Sign-in details may not be shared.
2. Your organisation’s owner may remove a user and invite another in their place.
3. Users in an organisation can open each other’s runs to read them and copy them into their own workspace, and they share the organisation’s presets, tubes and fans.

6. Acceptable use

You will not, and will not let anyone else:

1. copy, modify, decompile or reverse engineer DraftSolver, except where the law allows it despite this clause;
2. copy DraftSolver’s models, correlations, Handbook or outputs into a product or service that competes with DraftSolver;
3. resell DraftSolver, share an account, or give access to anyone outside your organisation other than as clause 4.2 allows;
4. get around a plan’s limits, a watermark, a credit charge or a security control;
5. use automated means to reach DraftSolver other than its API, within the limits we publish;
6. test DraftSolver’s security, or load it to see how it fails, without our written consent;
7. upload malicious code, or content you have no right to upload;
8. use DraftSolver unlawfully, or in breach of export control or sanctions laws (clause 22).

7. Fees, payment and tax

1. Prices are those on the plans page or in your order, in US dollars unless an order that Adiabat invoices states another currency, and exclude taxes.
2. Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders placed through its checkout or its invoices. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns for those orders. Paddle’s buyer terms apply to the purchase itself, and Paddle charges the taxes that apply where you are.
3. An order through Paddle is paid at Paddle’s checkout, or, for an annual order, on an invoice from Paddle paid by bank transfer within the terms the invoice states.
4. Adiabat may agree to invoice an order itself, for example an Enterprise order or an order from a South African organ of state or state-owned enterprise. Adiabat is then the seller of that order, clause 7.2 does not apply to it, and its invoice is payable within 30 days unless its order form says otherwise.
5. A subscription renews at the end of each subscription term for a term of the same length unless you cancel it before then; a multi-year order renews for one year at a time. You can cancel at any time in your account, through Paddle or by writing to us, and the cancellation takes effect at the end of the current term.
6. A multi-year order is placed on an order form and runs for three years, billed yearly unless it is paid in advance. Its prices stay those of the year it was placed for its whole term, including for seats added during it. It commits you to the whole term: each year’s fee is payable when that year begins, and the order can be ended early only under clause 15, 19.4, 20.2 or 21.
7. A founding order is a multi-year order whose order form sets a reduced share of the list price for each of its years.
8. We tell you of a change in price at least 30 days before the renewal it applies to. A change does not apply during a multi-year order’s term.
9. Seats and add-ons added during a term are charged for the rest of that term.
10. If a payment is not made when due, we may suspend DraftSolver for your organisation after giving you 14 days’ notice.
11. Refunds are made under our refund policy.

8. Credits

1. One credit is one core-hour of CFD compute. CFD jobs on Adiabat’s compute are paid for in credits; ratings, sweeps, designs, annual runs and transients use none.
2. Each job shows its estimate before it starts and holds that estimate while it runs. It is charged the compute it used, and at least 5 credits.
3. Credits you buy expire 12 months after you buy them. Credits included in a plan lapse at the end of its term.
4. Credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred and are refunded only as the refund policy says. If a job fails because of a fault on our side, we return its credits.
5. Credits cost the same on every plan, an Academic plan included, at the prices on the plans page or in your order.

9. Your data

1. You own your customer data. You grant Adiabat the right to host, copy, process and display it only to provide DraftSolver to you, to support you when you ask, and to do what the law requires.
2. We do not use your customer data for any other purpose. We do not sell it, and we do not use it to train machine-learning models.
3. We may use records of how DraftSolver is used, which hold no inputs or results, to run, secure and improve DraftSolver and to set its plans.
4. Your organisation’s owner can export all of its data at any time.
5. When an organisation’s owner asks for its deletion, it is deleted 14 days later, and the owner can cancel the deletion until then. Deleted data leaves our backups as they roll over, within 12 months.
6. When a plan ends and is not renewed, your organisation can read and export its data, but not run analyses, for 12 months. We then delete it after giving the owner 30 days’ notice by email.
7. How we handle your data describes where your data is kept and how it is protected.

10. Outputs

1. You own the outputs DraftSolver computes for you and may use them in your work and give them to your clients, subject to the marks on Trial and Academic outputs in clauses 3.4 and 4.3.
2. A report carries DraftSolver’s statement of what its model covers and what each result was compared with. If you give a report to someone else, do not alter it so that it misstates what DraftSolver computed.

11. Adiabat’s intellectual property

DraftSolver, its software, models, Handbook, worked examples and documentation, and the Adiabat and DraftSolver names and marks, belong to Adiabat or its licensors. These terms give you no right in them other than the licence in clause 4. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them without any obligation to you.

12. Third-party software, data and standards

1. DraftSolver uses open-source software, including OpenFOAM for the CFD it runs on Adiabat’s compute. Their licences and notices are on the notices page. An OpenFOAM case you export is yours to run under OpenFOAM’s own licence.
2. Weather from PVGIS is the European Commission’s, and is used under the Commission’s terms with its attribution.
3. DraftSolver follows the methods of ASME PTC 30.1 and cites its numbers, but does not include the code’s text; you need your own copy of the code to conduct a test under it. DraftSolver does not certify that a test complies with the code.

13. Engineering responsibility

14. Availability, changes and support

1. We take reasonable care to keep DraftSolver available and to give notice of planned maintenance where we can.
2. We may change DraftSolver, but we will not materially reduce the functions of your plan during a term you have paid for.
3. Support is given by email at admin@adiabat.co.za during South African business hours. Service levels apply only where an Enterprise order form states them.
4. A feature we mark as a preview is offered as it is, and may change or be withdrawn.

15. Warranties

16. Limitation of liability

17. Indemnities

18. Confidentiality

Each party will keep the other’s confidential information confidential and use it only for these terms. Your customer data is your confidential information. The parts of DraftSolver that are not public, and the terms of an order form, are ours. Information that is public through no fault of the receiving party, that it already had or developed on its own, or that it must disclose by law, is not confidential. This clause lasts five years after these terms end, and indefinitely for customer data and trade secrets.

19. Personal information in your data

Where your customer data holds personal information, you are its responsible party (controller) and Adiabat is your operator (processor). Adiabat will:

1. process it only to provide DraftSolver on your instructions, which are these terms and your use of the app;
2. ensure that the people who process it are bound to confidentiality;
3. keep the security measures described on How we handle your data;
4. use only the operators listed there, give at least 30 days’ notice of a new one, and let you end your subscription with a refund of prepaid fees if you object to it on reasonable grounds;
5. tell you without undue delay of a security compromise that affects it, as section 21(2) of POPIA and article 33 of the GDPR require;
6. help you answer requests from the people it concerns;
7. delete it under clause 9 when these terms end, unless the law requires us to keep it;
8. give you the information you reasonably need to verify these obligations.

Our own use of personal information is described in our privacy policy.

20. Term, suspension and ending these terms

1. These terms apply for as long as you use DraftSolver.
2. Either party may end these terms by notice if the other commits a material breach and does not remedy it within 30 days of being told of it.
3. We may suspend access at once if it is needed to protect DraftSolver or other users from harm, if it is being used unlawfully, or under clause 7.10.
4. When these terms end, your licence ends and clause 9.6 applies to your data. Clauses 6, 9 to 11, 13 and 15 to 26 survive.

21. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms by giving at least 30 days’ notice of a material change by email or in the app. If you do not accept a change, you may cancel before it takes effect and we will refund the fees you prepaid for the rest of your term. If you keep using DraftSolver after the change takes effect, you accept it.

22. Export control and sanctions

You confirm that neither you nor any user is a person named on a sanctions list of the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom or the United States, or in a country subject to their comprehensive sanctions, and that you will not use DraftSolver in breach of export control laws.

23. This website

The website describes DraftSolver. Its figures and drawings are drawn at the proportions of DraftSolver’s default cases and are not any particular plant. We take care that it is accurate, but it is not engineering advice. Links to other sites are not an endorsement of them. You may link to the website; its content is ours or our licensors’.

24. Law and disputes

1. These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.
2. The parties will first try to settle a dispute by negotiation between senior people within 20 business days of either party’s notice of it.
3. If the dispute is not settled, either party may take it to the High Court of South Africa with jurisdiction. Either party may ask a court for urgent interim relief at any time.
4. Nothing in these terms limits a right that a law protecting consumers gives you and that cannot be excluded.

25. Notices

Notices to Adiabat go by email to admin@adiabat.co.za, and Adiabat chooses its physical address below as its address for service of legal documents. Notices to you go by email to your organisation’s owner. A notice sent by email is given when it is sent, unless the sender learns it was not delivered.

26. General

These terms and any order form are the whole agreement between the parties about DraftSolver. If a clause is found unenforceable, the rest stands. A party that does not enforce a right has not waived it. You may assign these terms only with our consent, which we will not withhold unreasonably; we may assign them to a buyer of our business with notice to you. Neither party is liable for a delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control. The parties are independent contractors. These terms confer no benefit on a third party.

27. About Adiabat

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002, asks a supplier to make the following information available.

• Full name and legal status: Adiabat (Pty) Ltd, a private company
• Registration number: 2026/726535/07, registered in South Africa
• Director: Dr Wian Strydom
• Physical address, and address for service of legal documents: 6 Lingfield Way, Edgemead, Cape Town, 7441, South Africa
• Telephone: +27 62 299 0106
• Email: admin@adiabat.co.za
• Website: adiabat.co.za
• Adiabat belongs to no self-regulatory or accreditation body and subscribes to no code of conduct.
• What DraftSolver is, what each plan contains and what it costs: the product pages and the plans page.
• How to pay: at Paddle’s checkout; on an invoice from Paddle, paid by bank transfer, for an annual order; or, where Adiabat agrees, on an invoice from Adiabat paid by bank transfer (clause 7).
• Paddle runs the checkout under its own security procedures; our protection of personal information is set out in the privacy policy and on How we handle your data.
• Records of a transaction: Paddle, or Adiabat for an order it invoices itself, sends an invoice and a receipt for each payment, and your account shows your plan and its term.
• Refunds and cancellation: the refund policy. If you are a natural person buying as a consumer, section 44 of the Act may also let you cancel within seven days; it does not apply once you have begun to use DraftSolver with your consent.